Rogueguineapig: Mac and Su

Pix!

2009-10-03T22:11:00.000-07:00

Prescott area at sunset.

This was the small one.
Run away Cane spider, run away!

Near Bill and Joan's house, out for a ride on my Ninja at sunset.

Morning, a new beginning at 40,000 feet.

Tom Cruise Awesomness.

Leather.

Denver at night via airplane. This was on our way to GJ.

Denver, from the air at night. This was on the flight

Safe and Sound in Arizona

2009-10-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

Well folks, we're here.

It's been a long time indeed since we updated, and it's more than overdue!

So when we last left you with info was in WA...which was a lifetime ago.
From WA we headed south to the high deserts of Western CO where we stayed with our good friends Chris and Emily Osburn. We got the Civic up and running with a new battery, and we spent the weekend relaxing and preparing for the mammoth tasks ahead. Chris and I played a significant amount of Gears of War 2. It was glorious. And Epic.
We did have a little party at the Osburn's place and also saw many of our old friends at church
that weekend. It was a wonderful time, and I think that we can safely say we'll be coming back through there hopefully within a year. We both would love to see everyone there and in HI
again soon.
Mom and Dad (McIntire) actually arrived in CO shortly after we did after a roadtrip from the Northwest that they had just finished up. We pooled resources and were able to rent one big truck instead of two smaller trucks. We saved everyone some money and caravan'd down to Prescott a day later than anticipated, but overall the packing and travel went very smoothly.
A cop pulled Su over for the cracked windshield on the Civic....how he saw that with us going 60 mph past him I'll never know. I'm guessing that the eye sight of cops everywhere has drastically improved since Krispy Kreme went out of business. :D :D :D
Anyway he let us off easy and we were grateful for that.
We arrived in Prescott after dark that warm evening. The King's had previously agreed to put us up, and Joan fixed a meal that would make the Olive Garden green with envy in honor of our arrival. We also had two other unexpected welcomers that evening...a smallerish Tarantula, and a stinking huge one. I exaggerate not in the least when I say that the big one was as big as my hand.."Run away!!!" They are large and fearsome looking, but fairly docile. Biting is their last line of defense...needless to say, I didn't push even their first line of defense. :)
After a few days of rest, Mom and Dad decided to head to Ruidoso and Phoenix for another look at places to stay. After weighing their options they did end up in the Phoenix/Tempe area so that dad can meet with some of the local neurologists.
Su and I stayed with the Kings for another few weeks as we began to search for jobs and housing. Because of the economic state, housing is in large supply in the Prescott area, whereas jobs are not. Shortly after I began looking for jobs, Bill King took me around to see some of the different businesses, and to introduce me to some of his friends in the area. I dressed up and printed up a few resumes and off we went.
One of the first places we stopped was Keller-Williams Realty, where I met Doug Bunch one of Bill's old friends and a co-owner of the local KW branch. He said he had a few minutes of time to meet with us, and we sat down in the conference room. One hour and forty-five minutes later he was walking us to the door. He wanted me to come back and meet Miki Nakajima, the other co-owner of the Market Center. Less than a week later I met with Miki, again supposedly for 15 or 20 minutes, and again nearly 2 hours later she was walking me to the door. I was due back on Monday for the final say. Monday came and I had a job.
Keller-Williams is a unique realty agency in that they want moral and ethical Realtors more than they want good salesmen. They are also unique in that they are the Costco of the Realty world...the mentality is "sell a lot of houses at lower margins". And it works!
I am currently an IT guy there, prob'ly not a huge shock to many of you. However, Miki has recently suggested that I might make a great Realtor and in the meantime I can help her teach classes to the agents. My classes would of course be computer and tech based and helping the agents avoid trashing their PCs. KW is also unique in that they spend vast amounts of money on education for their agents, which is how the door is open for me to teach Tech Classes.
Miki herself has completed a good portion of her Ph.D., so obviously education is close to her heart as well. Many of the agents are former teachers from the local schools, and a very good portion of the people I work with are believers. I am very humbled and blessed to be part of such a great group of folks.
Su found a job about a week later at the Foot Fetish, a smallerish boutique store in the Bashford Courts. Their specialty is obviously shoes, but they do have a very tasteful and wide variety of clothing as well. The owners are interesting folks...he's an Orthodox Jew, and she's ...well we don't know what she is. Su met a lady who knows the owner, and this lady was very excited to hear that Su is a Christian and that we went to Harvest. Apparently this lady has been praying for Su's boss to get saved for a long time, and so in a sense Su might just be an answer to that prayer. Su likes it there, and the store owners like her as well. They gave her a nice pair of shoes for work and she's been wearing them around and showing them off. :)
Bashford Courts is a tri-level building in downtown Prescott, a very cool, and very old section of town. Prescott itself has a very nice, historical, and yet modern feel to it.
There are numerous old classic autos, and a ton of motorcyclists in the area. They call it "Everyone's Hometown" and we've found this to be very true.
After we landed the jobs we worked on housing. The doors opened for us to rent an apartment in the Prescott Lakes area, a very nice newer community near one of Prescott's many gold courses. It is a little ways out of town, but the 10 minute drive is more than compensated for by the nice area and the lovely apartment. And it was a DEAL too! :) We're trying to get it furnished as we've had to start over from scratch and a couple of hide-a-beds are on our list of must-haves. That way you all can come visit us! :D Aren't we clever! The apartment has some very nice goodies, like a brand new microwave, and a pool and weight room so I can get my lard-butt in shape again! Woot for abs!
We started attending Harvest Bible Chapel, a church that is very similar to Calvary in many respects. One of my old acquaintances from my first time in OR is a pastor there, one Skip Breyer. The teaching is solid and the worship team is fantastic...we really like it there. This last week I auditioned with the media/worship director and he wants to plug me in to the team in about 6 more weeks. He's very excited about this, and I feel humbled to be able to play on the team. They're very disciplined and tight, and I feel honored that they need a second rate, two-bit hack electric guitarist.
Harvest as a denomination is a very cool phenomena. They were started as a direct response to Willow Creek in Chicago, a place to offer sound Biblical teaching instead of pop psychology.
Additionally, they're keeping very close tabs on the emergent church movement and what is going on in Christianity in general. They're very concerned about modern issues and making sure the Word of God stays central. (for those of you who aren't Christians, all of this is a good thing. :D Come to church with us!)
So about a week ago we got all moved in and have been tearing into our pile of stuff that we've somehow brought with us. We're blessed to have a lot less than we used to.
Blessed reductions. :D
The fish tank is fired up again, and we have 2 mollies, a platy, and 3 cherry barbs that are currently our pets. I'm still holding out for a 75 gallon guppy tank in the living room instead of the TV. I'm ok with losing the idiot-box for a huge fish tank.
I want to name the Black molly and the white molly "Goethe" and "Faustas", but Su isn't digging it. She suggested Larry, Moe, and Curly for the three barbs, and I think that'll work!
I did find a Ninja 250...it wasn't exactly what I wanted, but it was such a deal that I would have been a moron to pass it up. I've integrated the rear turn signals and have plans to integrate the front ones as well. For $1500, and being in near-mint condition, I feel blessed to have another bike.
So that's the news! In the future we'll prob'ly be adding piggies into the mix again, another fish tank, and eventually a Christmas tree. I am reevaluating my future in general with KW and the local college and how to make all of that work. I'm still not sure yet, so I would covet your prayers for wisdom in all of this.
We miss all of you and hope you all are well! We have internet as of today, so email us!
Unfortunately we live in a black hole for cell reception, so don't hold it against us if we don't txt or call back. Our phones simply do not work.
But do write and tell us the news! Blessings to you all!

Andrew and Su

Updates from WA!

2009-08-18T17:57:00.000-07:00

Well...I reckon it's about time to post an update.

We left Kauai almost two weeks ago now. It seems like a long time ago...I suppose that is the effect the island has on you after you leave.
We got our car sold and finalized on the day that we actually left...we even arranged with the new owner to be able to use it to take ourselves and our luggage to the airport. He then picked it up from the airport parking lot later on...it was a perfect setup and totally God-engineered. The guy who bought it was Eems (for those of you that know him), and he and his fiancee, Alyssa, were able to visit with us before we left. We also were extremely blessed to have Uncle Merv, Auntie Ulu, Auntie Maybelle, Auntie Rae, Pastor Bruce and Janet, intern Wes Shane, and a few others including my riding buddy Tim come and visit us at the airport. We were able to talk story one last time before we were prayed for by this group of incredible friends. And really, they weren't really friends, they were family. At long last we realized the time, and we had to tear ourselves away from the affectionate embraces of the group. It's a very difficult thing to do, when you realize, this is it, and you have to walk away from the people you care about and the place that has become home. I still get bummed just thinking about it. Kauai is a unique place, and the people there are incredible. The friends we had there will always be close to our hearts and we will hopefully be able to visit them again next year at some point.
Walking away from the security checkpoint and giving the final wave was probably one of the hardest things I think I've done. It wasn't that I couldn't do it, it was that I did not want to, but I knew I had to. We definitely left part of our heart in Kauai.
Interestingly enough our last day wasn't so depressing for the most part. Our good friend Charity Nelson came out for a visit, but the day before we left she went on a river hiking trip with a tour group to Kipu falls. Now if you look through my older posts you know that Kipu is a killer place to go jump in the water. Kipu can be a dangerous place too though. Charity attempted to do the rope swing and at some point of her impact on the water her ankle was severely broken. I'm still not sure if they know if it was a rock or something else in the water. Either way she was taken to Wilcox Hospital in Lihue and all trussed up in a splint of sorts in the Emergency Room when we got there. We were able to get her car for her from the parking area near the falls, and we took her some of her personal effects during her time in the Hospital. On the last day we were getting some things for her and running around getting the last details of the car finalized, so it worked out well. We actually had all of our packing done early and I suppose that made life a lot easier for what the events of the day were. Charity had surgery the day after we left and he mom flew out to be with her and help her in her final days on the island. She was due to leave the following Monday and actually kept that itinerary in spite of the surgery and busted ankle. Please pray for her as she recovers...they have not been able to get a proper cast on her as her ankle is still too swollen. It may be another 6 weeks or so before she can even walk again. Not exactly something she had planned on.

We arrived in Washington after our all nighter flight. The flight went well, and we were fortunate that our luggage had gotten taken care of so well. Our booking agent actually reserved the third seat for us so that we got all the seats in that right-side aisle to ourselves. This was a huge blessing and we were able to sleep a little better because of it. Whoever thought that an airline seat was a good place to sleep was definitely someone who had problems with substance abuse, and had probably fried most of their gray matter on an illegal drug of some sort. I slept fairly well (for an airplane) and Su slept like crap. We were slightly out of it when we arrived in Seattle, but fortunately our bags came through quickly and we were whisked away by Su's oldest brother, Aaron. We got to see our new nephew (who thinks we're pretty cool) and enjoy Aaron's birthday with him and his wife. Seattle had been in the hundreds and high nineties the week before we arrived, but in honor of our arrival the temperature dropped to a frigid 55-60 degrees, and the sky went overcast to that textureless gray that Seattle is known for 13 months out of the year.
Needless to say, our attitudes were slightly less than appreciative.
We hung out with Aaron all day and enjoyed watching a few episodes of his complete (and very epic) M*A*S*H collection. The next day we headed over to Leavenworth with Jason, Su's other older brother. He was able to stay through the weekend and over the week we enjoyed more than a few good movies, cribbage games, and drives around the area. We did manage to score some temp work for a friend and also visited the church of the pastor who married us nigh on to 4 years ago. So it's been good to see the in-laws and our old stomping grounds. Leavenworth is just as pretty as ever...in my humble opinion it's the nicest place this side of the Cascades.
And there ain't much that nice on the other side of the Cascades, so yeah. Leavenworth is THE place to see if you ever go to WA.
Our time here is nearly done though. We will be renting a car, and picking it up on Wednesday night. We'll load the car up, and drive to Seattle the next morning where we will catch our flight to Denver. There is a layover in Denver, (boo!) , and then on to GJ! We will arrive late in GJ on Thursday night. Friday morning we will pickup our Honda Civic from it's Secret Location, and go get it tabbed/plated/registered. Oh joy. I may look at bikes in GJ since we probably will have some left over space in our U-Haul truck. And there's a few deals in GJ that are worth looking at.
We'll see tho.
So yes! That's the news.
Please pray for:
Charity - that she heals quickly.
Su's folks and mine as they are both facing some significant challenges in the days and weeks ahead.
Us - that we are able to get our transportation need squared away quickly in Colorado.
Safe travel - for all the McIntires, who are a travelin' clan.
Jobs - we recently found out that Su's transfer did NOT go through--this in spite of a stellar recommendation from her district manager in Hawaii. We're hoping this gets worked out quickly.

So that's it. No pix sorry. My computer is now my wife's borrowed laptop, at least until I get a few things sqaured away.
If you live in Western CO, come see us this weekend!! We want to see as many of you as we can and talk story with you.
Blessings on you all...

Andrew and Su

The Day Has Arrived

2009-08-05T01:47:00.000-07:00

Well folks here we are again...

it's time for the final update and photo upload before everything gets shutdown, packed up,
shipped off and sold.

The last few weeks have been incredible on a number of different levels. The stress levels have actually started to measure on a Richter-Scale, but the amount of love and aloha we have felt from our friends on the island has been equally high, if not higher.

I played Sunday before last, as a last role in the electric guitar slot at church, and this last Sunday I ran sound for the team. Additionally, I have been detailing

cars consistently all week long to help generate funds for our move. As usual, my customers (and fellow church-goers) have been incredibly generous and supportive. Additionally, my buddy Eems (Emanuel Rodriguez), who is also a local detailer (and fellow church-goer), helped me with a couple of cars, including my own. That's a nutshell of my activities over the past two weeks, but by no means is it a complete view of my doings. The pictured slide show is before-and-afters of a truck I did for a construction guy who goes to our church. This is his work truck...you can tell that Eddie certainly loves the beach!

Su got her transfer rolling and it is in the final stages on the Arizona end. She has been working at Starbucks up until this last Saturday, and it has kept her very busy. As soon as she was done at the shop she began the mammoth task of packing, shipping, cleaning, and finalizing our departure. When we first flew out here we were under the "Old Covenant" with the airlines, that is, the old set of rules concerning checked baggage. Since then many new rules have been implemented, so our luggage has to be carefully regulated. Su has been balancing the weight between all the bags so that our additional fees are kept to a minimum. She's also been cleaning the cottage which is going to be rented by a friend of ours who works as the Bible College Secretary. So it's likely that Su has been busier than I have been! We did gives the piggies away to one of her co-workers, and it was pretty hard. I guess we'll just have to get more! :)

We've been selling stuff like crazy...it's amazing how dedicated we were to not collecting crap, and here we are a year later with...you guessed it...a collection of crap. However, we are empowered by past-move experiences and much of the crap has been sold or throwed out.
Some of it was legitimate, but other stuff just needed to go.
We've sold a laptop, a desktop (the one I happen to be typing on), our car (massive praise there!), my little brother's cajon, my sister's keyboard, a guitar amp (boo hoo!), and other stuff.
As I type this now, we have almost exactly 23 hours left on the island. At this point, only some WiFi equipment and the motorcycle have not sold. I am bummed about having to sell the bike, but I am excited at the possibility of trying something new. We have been blessed in that many of our friends looked at our items for sale and bought them from us. So far, it has been nerve-wrackingly last minute on the sales, but they have all been incredibly smooth.
Two weeks ago Pastor Bob taught a sermon from Exodus and the classic story of Moses and the nation of Israel pinned against the Red Sea as the Egyptians closed in. It was entitled, "When your back is to the wall" and was incredibly timely as to the nature of our situation and my parents' situation as well. As with Israel against the Sea, the Lord has been perfectly on time with our situation. I pray that next time our faith is a little stronger, but God is good. I simply pray now that the bike sells. Ironically, the motorcycle did win an internet contest for "most beautiful bike" in it's class and will be featured in the forum's 2010 yearly calender. The winning picture is the one I posted a while back all by itself.

We have had a "Last Gaming Night", a "Last Friday Night At The Beach", and so on. Each round of goodbyes gets progressively harder as we go. We have come to know and love a great many folks on this island and in this church. I sincerely hope and pray it is not long before we are back here again to visit and to fellowship with our friends that we have here.
Kauai has an interesting effect on the people that live there. It is said that Kauai reveals your demons, and in so many ways it is true. The Island is dark spiritually, and the enemy definitely has a stronghold here. However, the true believers here shine all the brighter for it, and are made perfect in the adversity that they face here daily.
The ancient Hawaiians have old words that have meaning even today. Mana means heart, and 'aina is the island. For us, the 'aina is in our mana that we take with us, but the mana stays here on the 'aina in part as we go. We will dearly miss our friends here, and we are already talking about the trips back out to the island to see our beloved aunties and uncles.

Please pray for us as we are in for an incredible amount of culture shock and a very long plane ride that starts at the wrong end of the day.
Also pray that the motorcycle and WiFi gear gets sold as well. We really want to lessen the stress of the next few weeks. After tomorrow morning, I will be officially computerless, however feel free to still email me as I can easily recieve all my email on my BlackBerry.

Our itenerary is as follows
Aug 5 - Over night flight to Seattle, WA
Aug 6 - Arrive in Seattle and stay with Su's oldest brother for a day or so.
Aug 7 - Drive with Su's younger/older brother over to Leavenworth.
Aug 8-19 - Stay in the Leavenworth/Wenatchee area. We would love to see you if you live there!
Aug 20 - Drive a rental car over to Seattle and fly from SEATAC to Denver, and from Denver to GJ. Arriving in GJ late, after 10 pm.
Aug 21 - Getting our car in GJ squared away with insurance, plates, etc. Possible gathering?
Aug 22 - Saturday. Party. Sleep. Party. Sleep. Party. Sleep. Get yelled at for throwing too many parties at Chris's house. LOLOLOL
Aug 23 - Go to church. Party. Sleep.
Aug 24 - Pickup 14' U-Haul and load it from our storage unit in Fruita. Packing Party?
Aug 25 - Drive to Prescott, AZ and attempt to stay awake whilst driving. We do have a place to stay and some possibilities for rentals once we arrive.

That is our plan. Lord willing it will work out half that well.
As we leave Kauai we leave with heavy hearts, but a sense of excitement and expectancy.
Who knows what the Lord will do next? We hope to see as many of you as possible before we go,
and as we visit our different surrogate homes.
Blessings and Aloha to you all.

Andrew and Su

BIG Updates from the Western Front

2009-07-14T04:29:00.000-07:00

Oh it is that time again! Aren't you excited?!

More HUGE-NORMOUS updates from us here.
***REMEMBER, YOU CAN CLICK ON THE PICTURES FOR LARGER SIZES FOR DOWNLOADS, PRINTS AND DESKTOP WALL PAPERS!***

First of all, we are blessed to have our one of our friends out here for a month, a much needed break for her. It's great to see an old friend discover the island for the first time.
Because of this we're going up Kuamo'o, and out to the West Side in the near future and we'll have even more amazing pix to share.
Camp is in full swing for the church and old friends of my folks (Craig and Sharon Chambers) are out for this week of camp. They are longtime lovers of the island, and Craig will be teaching the kiddos this week at camp. He is a veteran science teacher and is teaching the kids all sorts of neat stuff at middle school camp. (At right, a long time-lapse shot at Lydgate beach of my dad and Craig. That's the moon you see in the clouds)

My folks are moving back to the mainland with their flight leaving on the 27th of July.
As their time in Kauai draws to close, please remember them in prayer. The doors have closed for them to be able to stay here beyond the end of July and they are sad to be leaving.

Su and I are also moving back to the mainland with our flights leaving on August 6th. Perhaps a shocker to some (and old news to others), but this has been in the works for a while. Back in May I applied to Yavapai Community College in Prescott, AZ, and I have been accepted. Su and I are planning to move to Prescott with an arrival date of late August. In the meantime, we fly to Seattle on the 6th of August. We will be the Leavenworth area for two weeks as we visit Su's family for a long overdue and much needed visit with them. If you are in the Wenatchee/Seattle area we would love to see you! We will be in Washington until Augest 20th when we fly to Grand Junction in CO. We will be picking up a U-Haul truck in GJ after a few days, and then packing our storage unit into the truck and driving to Prescott, AZ on the 24th or so. We do have a good lead on a place to stay while we look for housing in Prescott. Fortunately, the housing market is soft like a Snickers bar in the sun, and nice places are abundant at cheap prices.
I will be starting school in January Lord willing. Su will be transferring from Starbucks out here to the Starbucks out in Prescott if everything goes through. Prescott is economically taking a beating like many other towns in the US, however the cost of living is substantially lower than in Kauai or other places. We've been living very skimpily for the last year, off of very little so we are ready to pay a little less for staples like milk, and electricity.

As for the school, Yavapai is a Community College where I will study two years of General Ed.
After that, NAU is just up the road, and Phoenix is just down the road a ways, with both places offering a plethora of degrees and programs that interest me. The climate of Prescott is milder than most, but it does get snow and can be chilly. All in all, we are looking forward to it. And Prescott has an In-and-Out. This is something we are very excited about.

Please pray for us. We have so much that has to happen, so much that has to be made in the way of finances, and so many events that need to occur in just the right order at the right time.
A short laundry list would look akin to this:
- Sell our car which has the title held by a bank on the mainland (and hopefully get a good price)
- Sell the motorcycle for a good price
- Ship our extra stuff to the mainland
- Find cars to detail and jobs to do to make up for first month's rent in Prescott
- Get our old car on the mainland registered, plated, insured, and tagged
- Find a place in Prescott to live and call home
- Get the Starbucks Transfer going and have it work out
- Find a job for Andrew in the meantime and in Prescott
- Find a vehicle in Prescott (in addition to the Civic)
and much later
- Sort out financial aid at Yavapai
- Register for classes

And no that's not all. So we would covet your prayers, and even ideas that you may have.
Heck, if you want to do a road trip with us... :D

In Other News
The Fourth went well at church! Su entered the watermelon eating contest (no hands) and did well! There wasn't really a prize or anything...so it was more for fun. There was an egg toss, free shave ice, a chili cook off (and trust me, things really got cookin after a while), and fireworks that we watched from the hill top. We also watched "Bolt" the animated kids flick. All in all everything went well and it was a wonderful day. I got to fly a training kite for kite surfing and it was a kick. Those things got some yank to em, ya know?

I did go riding on the 3rd and saw the NASA Observatory at the top of Kokee. The Waimea Ride went very well, and it was pretty intense. I wasn't riding like I usually do...a lot more relaxed and chilled out. I wanted to live! :)

The Lord has been gracious and we have had an average of one or two cars a week for me to detail which really makes a big difference. Su has been doing very well at her job, and one of her managers wanted to make her a Supervisor if she wasn't leaving. Not bad for less than a year's time with the company!

We've been selling things like crazy to avoid the extra cost of heavy bags and more bags than we need on the airplane. Most of the guitar stuff has been sold along with various other goodies collected from hither and thither.

We did make it up to the Waimea Canyon a few weeks ago and it was a fantastic trip. The canyon is several thousand feet above sea level, so you can see a long ways from the top up there. You get two distinctly different thoughts as you look around up there. The first is, "Wow this island is huge!" and the other is, "wow this island is tiny!" Both are true in their own way. The shot at right was taken from one of the main look outs, but it is only a small section of the panorama from up there. I'm working on linking 8 or 10 pictures together for a large panorama file, but that's a later update.

This is a wonderful place on the planet, and our time here has been incredible on a number of different levels. Everyone really ought to come here at least once in their lifetime. It's about as close to Eden as you will get in this life. We are very sad to be leaving and leaving the friends we've made here. But no one said life was easy, and moving surely isn't.
So that's all the news that's fit to print at the moment. Write us or contact us if you'd like to see us on our multi-city tour or if you'd like something from Hawaii. We'll be around, and we will have our phones and internet throughout the move, so we'll post pix, vids, and updates as we go. It's not quite as good as roadtrip with us, but it's close! :) We'll talk to you all soon!

Clean Bike

2009-07-02T23:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is the Ninja. It's clean. At least until it rains.
Tomorrow I'll be riding with a coupla local guys up the canyon on the south-west side of the island. More pix and fun to come after the weekend!

Updates and a Pictoral Essay

2009-06-06T16:40:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all!!

Yes, it's been a while again. I don't exactly check out my own blog to see what's going on...then the whole "outta sight - outta mind" thing kicks in.

We'll start off with a timeline of events and then go into details.

In late April Jake and Sarah came for a visit, a much needed break for them. Jake has been working on the Smuckers factory among other places currently. We both were working on dad's 1984 Honda Rebel he picked up a while back. We took the head off, and cleaned the carb, drained out the old gas and got it all street legal again. It was grand and we had a great time.
During their stay Pizzetta's called me and let me know that I was off the schedule due to cutbacks. Translated, the owner doesn't want to pay for workers any longer, so since late April I have only been back one night for work. They're not doing so well down there, and I don't anticipate getting anymore hours from them in the near future.

Unemployment is at about 10.5% in Kauai right now, so the concept of job hunting is a popular one and there aren't many jobs around. Almost immediately after getting laid off someone from the church asked me to detail their car, and I obliged. Since then, we've had a least one car a week, and as many as three cars in a single week that Su and I detail for people. Next week we have two more, so it is a blessing and a means of income to keep food on the table. The average job takes us about 5-6 hours, and we wash and wax the car, scrub and blacken the tires, clean the engine, vac in the interior, and use a quasi-steam cleaner on the upholstry and carpets. We also use a armorall like product on the vinyl after we scrub everything down. The windows get washed and the leather gets a special leather treatment. We also shampoo the mats and sometimes the trunk as well. Thus far, everyone has been very pleased with the way their car looks and smells after we get done with it, and we take anywhere from 12-18 buckets of filthy water out of the average car. Needless to say everyone's been thrilled.

Also during Jake and Sarah's stay was the church's family camp up on the North Shore. This is not far from where Pierce Brosnan lives (James Bond actor) and it's a lovely spot up there. The camp is located on beach front property, and it a great place to fish and enjoy the waves. Jake caught a ton of fish (squid is the preferred bait of fish and anglers alike), and Su and I went on a trip up to one of the largest caves on the north shore. Fresh water accumilates in the bottom of the cave and there is a sizeable little pond inside. The sun rarely shines into the cave however, so the water is extremely cold (for Hawaii). I managed to go for a swim and I went pretty far back into the tunnels. Our pastor said he'd never seen the water level so low, so instead of having to swim under water to get into the second area, we simply paddled on in. It was incredible to say the least.

Su and I also took a trip down south to the Kauai Coffee Plantation where a good chunk of Hawaii's coffee is grown. They boast over 4 million plants with multiple varieties and a tasting room where you can try all the different flavors they offer. The coffee is wonderful and the little self-guided tour is pretty fun as well. My wife enjoys playing tourist sometimes! We have videos and pix from that trip, but that's probably for another post.

Mom and Dad are doing well, and working for the Bible College over the summer. They're helping with the summer camps that the college is putting on, and additionally helping the school boost it's number of students through advertising. Dad's doctor has backed off a little on the certainty of his diagnosis regarding my dad's Parkinson's Disease. They are looking into the possbility of some of the symptoms being stress related rather than PD and it seems viable at least for now. Only time will tell the whole story.
In the meantime, he's content to be working and riding. He keeps humming Steppenwolf to himself though...

Josh is in CA working for a summer camp, and after which he will probably live in New Mexico near his girlfriend, Kiya. We anticipate "big news" there at some point. :)

Betsy just left for CO and is working at the summer camp there for the next 5-6 weeks or so.
She's been very excited about it and is enjoying the chance to be back in her old stomping grounds.

Hannah is playing on the worship team and continuing on with her schoolwork and improving by leaps and bounds as both an artist and a photographer. Check out her facebook page for more on that. She and Sarah have also been doing Hula, and both are doing very well at it...'specially for haolies!

Sarah has started helping Su and I with some of our cars that we do, and we hire her to give us a hand on the bigger projects. She's saving to go to summer camp here, so this gives her a boost in funds and takes some of the workload off our shoulders.

Su has been starting her classes for becoming a supervisor at Starbucks, and so far things have been going well for her in this regard. Many of the supervisors and managers are looking favorably on her and her chance to get promoted doesn't seem too far off.

I've been leading worship about once a month out here at the church and playing electric guitar every so often as well. I will also start running sound fairly soon and I'm looking forward to that.
I've got several job possibilities floating around, some of them quite good and serious, but in the meantime the car detailing keeps me busy. Oh yes, and I teach guitar lessons. My little students, ("skulls full of mush" as I affectionately refer to them) are doing quite well. One is learning to lead worship with the acoustic and sing, and the other is becoming quite the little lead guitar player. Both of them are quite phenomenal for how long they've been playing, which is amazing considering the teacher! Even so, I'm very proud of them.

One last bit for you all before we sign off here...
We happen to know a few families in the area with extra rooms/aparments that they do not use. These would possibly be available for you, our friends to rent for a week or two weeks if you should want a vacation out in Kauai. Airline fares from Phoenix, Seattle, Portland, and even Eugene are fairly reasonable, and with a drastically discounted place to stay, it really brings a trip out here within reach. We use Orbitz as a good starting place for tickets. Many times Orbitz is actually cheaper than going direct to the airline itself!
If done right, a vacation for two for 14 days can be done for around $2000, sometimes a little less. We know the places to shop and the cheapest way to eat and experience Kauai.
So please, consider coming to visit! It's definitely worth it, I promise! We just had a few friends of ours from Seattle visiting a few weeks ago, and it was wonderful to have some friends from the mainland stop by. So look in to it! It's much cheaper than you think. And email me when you are ready to find out more about a place to stay.
With that, we sign off! Keep us in your prayers as we are still considering schooling and some other drastic life changes in the future.
Blessings!!

Andrew & Su

Important News from Kauai

2009-04-10T05:20:00.001-07:00

Greetings one and all!!

I finally find myself here again, smashing out news in typed form after too-long an absence. There's a lot going on here, so we'll give you the best run down we can of everything and let you digest it all.

Su
Is doing well! She's avoided the mosquitoes recently and also continued on the path to supervisorship at Starbucks. Her hours are good and the benefits from Starbucks have helped her with a couple of things making life that much sweeter.
She is involved with a weekly ladies' Bible Study and also reads a ton of books in her off time. She also continually babies the two piggies and spoils them rotten. She dyed her hair a shade or two darker recently, just for fun. If she knew I was posting pictures, she would kill me. Translated: she is going to kill me tomorrow when she sees this.

Andrew
Is writing more and more in his free time, and looking into the possibilities of writing as a career. Pizzetta's has been busier for spring break and the tips have been enough to keep things going without the need for another job.
Three weeks ago to the day of this posting, Andrew went down on his motorcycle in Kapaa traffic. After making a left hand turn across traffic, he merged only to find himself in a situation where he needed to stop quickly. Normally this is not a problem, however his front tire was very worn and as he applied the breaks the tire broke traction and the bike slid out from under him at around 15 or 20 mph.
He tore/stretched ligaments in his left foot and smashed his left thumb badly, but overall is making an excellent recovery. The bike suffered almost no damage and Andrew was in full gear at the time. Since then, the tires have BOTH been replaced with new Pirellis...and they make all the difference!
Su bought him a preworkout supplement for Valentine's Day, and he has been working out hard once or twice a week and seeing some nice results over the last month and a half. (I have pictures, but I'm only posting them if everyone sends me ten bucks.)
He still teaches/proctors the ever-popular Dave Ramsey class at the college and plays guitar on occasion at the church.

Family
Jake and Sarah are well in spite of a recently totaled automobile. Sarah just got back from Ireland and her and Jake, along with their rat, Nicodemus, are doing just fine.
Josh is a lucky boy after he found himself an airline ticket to CA for next to nothing. The ticket was a buddy pass and he got a full round trip first class to CA for spring break to visit Kiya, his really cool girlfriend. He is out there for a full 12 days at the Murietta Campus, enjoying life no doubt.
The Girls are also doing well, with Betsy witnessing to everyone that crosses her path, and Sarah and Hannah in Hula lessons.
Hannah got a Wacom Tablet for her birthday and she's been loving it to death.
Mom and Dad
This is where the news isn't so fun anymore.
Dad went to see a family doctor and described some symptoms he's been having for the last year and a half. The doctor referred him to a neurologist and he diagnosed my dad with Parkinson's disease about a week ago. I will say that this is an initial, but fairly certain diagnosis. Nothing is 100% because of the nature of Parkinson's, but the neurologist is pretty sure. Needless to say, it's been a rough and shocked week around the McIntire clan here. Parkinson's can be somewhat attributed to head trauma, and during their tenure at the summer camp, dad had an ATV malfunction on him causing an accident. This was almost 4 years ago and dad was knocked unconcious for a lengthy but indeterminate amount of time.
Recently dad has also been having headaches followed by extreme weakness, and the neurologist does not attribute these to Parkinson's but to something else. Dad is scheduled for an MRI on Friday, but the results won't be in for a week or so.
At the same time, the time that my folks had signed to the church has come to an end. They have fulfilled the year that they and the church had decided on, and are now debating whether to return to the mainland or stay here in Kauai. Needless to say, Dad's diagnoses has made this a more weighty decision.
Please keep them in prayer at this time...they're wanting to do the Lord's will and need clear direction.

Su's Family is doing well. Little Michael, our nephew was home not too long after delivery, his jaundice is gone and he's very alert and expressive in his features. Andrew is sure he will grow up to be a trouble maker, and efforts are underway to ensure this happens. Bernie is going to school and doing well from what we've heard.

The Future is uncertain at the moment. Andrew would like to consider schooling in the near future, and has looked into the possibilities. He is very eligible for Pell Grants (which Su, her dad, and Andrew's dad all used) and other forms of financial aid for tuition. This would mean another move to somewhere with a lower cost of living to make schooling possible.
There is no solid ETA on any of this, we would just appreciate your prayers as we look at all of this. If a move does happen, rest assured we'll let you know and we'll arrange a reunion tour with all of you! We'll hopefully have some Easter Vids and pix up soon, and in the mean time, check out the video bar on the left as Andrew has added a few motorcycle vids on there showing off our lovely island.
We miss you all and hope to see you soon.
Blessings and Peace,

Andrew and Su

Post Traumatic Holiday Stress Update

2009-02-03T02:32:00.000-08:00

Well since I've been lazy and putting it off (a condition known as I'll-do-it-later-itis, or procrastination for short), it's time for UPDATES!!
Aren't you all lucky! :D

Well the holidays left us tired, busy, and broker, probably like many of you. But they were good! Things have started to settle a little in the way of routine.
Here's a basic rundown of nearly every aspect of our lives:

Housing
After being ousted from the Wailua House we were able to spend a month with Paul and Sophie Ross, a nice family from church. Their house had a large upstairs bedroom and we were quite comfortable there. The time was set for a month because of family they had coming to visit, so we then stayed with Turanskys (Bible College Director) for a few weeks in a spare room. In that time, the cottage that the Turansky's have on their property suddenly became available, and so we wrote up a rental agreement with them and are now renting the cottage for a very reasonable rate. The cottage is one bedroom, one bath, with a decent sized living room and a full kitchen as well as a mini-pantry. Our couch from the Wailua house ended up here as did our box frame and mattress. Add a microwave, a fridge, and a coupla small end tables and such and voila! A house! There's good parking and a nice porch to boot, although the mosquitos seem to have made it their purpose in life to make sure we don't enjoy the porch.
It's a great setup though, and it makes it much easier to do the things we love...cook and have people over to eat our cooking. We're not sure if they love those things as much as we do, but no one seems to have died yet from our bolognese sauce. We'll keep ya posted.

Jobs
Are about the same. The paper work has gone through for Su to officially become a supervisor. This means unlimited power for her...ok not really. It DOES mean more hours, better pay, benefits, and a more consistant schedule. So it's a good thing, but the process can take awhile. It also ups her chances for a successful transfer to another store at some point.
Pizzetta's is taking a hit just like everyone else in the economy. Tourism is down, and many more people are leaving the island than coming to. A friend who works in the airline industry mentioned that his plane is full on the outward trip, but sparse on the inward trip. As prices continue to rise and job availability goes through the floor the cost of living is driving many people to find jobs elsewhere to make ends meet. And with prices like they are, it doesn't take much. Pizzetta's has a new manager and so far he is working out very well. This is a blessing in many ways, as there was some uncertainty and apprehension about the direction the restaurant was going. There are many issues there still, but all in all Andrew enjoys working there and the tip percentage is high, even if the door counts are low.
Andrew will probably be seeking additional employment if the hours stay constant and grouped in the evenings.

Family
Su's Brother and Sister-in-Law had their baby boy around a week ago, so we are officially Auntie and Uncle!! Michael Paul is our little nephew and we hope to be able to see him in the near future and spoil him rotten...just like good relatives do. Michael had jaundice as many newborns do, but it has started to fade with time and treatment. Jason is helping Aaron remodel parts of the house to finish up the baby-inspired rennovation.
Su's brothers are working and doing well, Su's sister is taking classes at the local community college in WA.
Andrew's brother Josh had his girlfriend visiting for a few weeks before the semester started. She was able to meet the family (a rather daunting task given the SIZE of said family) and said family views her quite favorably. We all hope she can come out for the summer and keep Josh company as he works for the church.
Jake and Sarah are still in CA and working there. Jake's work has been hit-and-miss, although the schedule is starting to look more favorable for him as the year progresses. Currently he is working at a bottling plant in the Bay Area for a week or so.
The girls are doing well and staying active. Sarah has taken hula quite seriously and does very well. Hannah has also taken up the art and is also doing very well. Both girls performed for the Christmas Eve service and did an absolutely fabulous job. Betsy is still devouring books and is involved with the youth. If memory serves, she may be taking classes with the Bible College this semester.

Odds and Ends
The semester starts, and with it another season of class proctering. Andrew is still running the Financial Peace University class with the DVDs by Dave Ramsey. This semster it's 5 students, up 20% from last semster...Andrew is very excited to be able to help with the young skulls full of mush and be able to procter the class. Last year's class got rave reviews from the students and we're hoping for more of the same this year.
Su has been knitting or crocheting like crazy and made nephew Michael a baby blanket. It's a miniature work of art, and she's very proud of it, as well she should be. She's also been helping a girl from church with her finances and doing some general discipleship with her. Her job gets her up early, but she has every afternoon and evening off.
Andrew is contemplating going back to school and looking into that avenue for the next few years. First off, the basics...getting the ball rolling and all that. In the mean time he still enjoys his motorcycle, recently tweaked, tuned and fixed.
Anyway, that's the news from Kauai.
The weather has been great, and the upper 70s of the last week have only slipped a little. The whales are moving through the area now, and it's not uncommon to see a blowhole cloud out in the water, like a small steam kettle exploding.
That's all the news for now!
Do write us when you think about it, and keep us in your prayers.
Blessings

Andrew and Su

Happy New Year and Merry Christmas!

2009-01-10T02:26:00.000-08:00

Late.
I know. I'm a loser. Merry Christmas just the same!

More Pictures!

2008-12-15T11:51:00.000-08:00

As always folks, click on the pictures for bigger downloadable versions for wallpapers,
facebook, myspace, maybe poster prints, maybe book covers...ya know. whatever. :)
Enjoy the Pix!

Pre-Christmas updates and happenings

2008-12-14T19:32:00.000-08:00

Hey folks!

We're back in the saddle again after a few odd weeks here and there. Here's a briefing on the happenings of our two parent-two guineapig family.

Housing
We're currently staying at the Bible College director's house up in the Wailua Homesteads, about 30 seconds from where we originally lived up there. They have a large ohana-style house, so it's a nice temporary place. They also have a small cottage on the property that is a wonderful little house...the tile and everything is modeled after the main house. I'm sure on squarefootage, but it has a bathroom, a nice little livingroom, an open and yet fully furnished kitchen with a decent sized bedroom. Even a washer out back with a clothes line! What more could we ask for?
The price is reasonable, so we're looking at additional jobs to help make ends meet. I've had an interview or so, and some leads that we're keeping tabs on.

Jobs
Su is working varied hours between the two stores, but the district manager came out the other day to look things over and she had to do some sort of little demo-dealie and they district guy was very impressed and spoke well of her. She's also earned several awards as well as the respect and appreciation of her supervisors and her peers. All in all, she's really doing well for the company. I've been working in multiple capacities for Pizzetta's, including chef, server, IT, outsourced spreadsheet work, dishwasher, host, busser, and bartender. So although my hours have been cut back on, I've made myself more valuable to the company resulting in (you guessed it) more hours. I just heard today that the owner wants to add to my work in the capacity of inventory on Saturday or Monday. So hopefully that all works out. Tips have been ok in spite of the economic happenings, but overall customers are down a little. Not bad though for all the "end of the world" headlines. I still hope to add a fulltime job in there somewhere, but the work market is very tight right now. No one is hiring, and everyone is looking for work. God has been faithful so far, and so wew have no reason to believe that things will be any different in the future.

Family
My Dad has been working hard for the church here. The church is looking perhaps to move to some new property and sell the old property, so the presentations of different proposals are being written up by him. Things were busy before, but they are crazy now!
Mom is cooking and baking and they're getting settled into their new house in north Kapaa.
It's a good spot for them, and a LOT closer than Princville was (see last update).
The girls are doing well and getting ready for Christmas. They're adjusting well to the new place and still involved in youthgroup and the other church activities.
Su's brother and sister-in-law are pregnant (well at least SHE is), and due in late January.
Hopefully if the "trip" envelope fills up soon she'll make a two-week long trip out there to see the new baby and have a good time with her folks. She may also freeze to death as well, but she says she misses the cold, so we'll let her get an icecold fix. :D

Misc. Stuff and Nonesense
Today was the Toys-For-Tots motorcycle ride from Lihue to Hanalei by way of the airport and the Kuhio Highway. As of yesterday it was raining cats and dogs and Timmy and I weren't really sure the ride was going to happen. Lo and behold the sun was shining this mornining and so we rode out to Wal-Mart to pick up some toys and then rode to one of the county buildings in Lihue.
One of the riders went down on the way out to the rally pointf--prary for him if you think of him. He broke 7 ribs, his clavical, and possibly had some bleeding around his heart. The word on the street is that he lowsided his CBR1000 on the wet pavement. Last we heard he was awake and talking to his wife...they did fly him to Oahu to keep an eye on his heart.
In spite of this the ride went well...roughly 80 or so riders with Harleys and choppers being the majority of the bikes with a few sportbikes (hubba hubba hubba), a couple of Hondas, and a lonely dual-sport. It was fantastic fun, and we were well recieved. The pix are from the ride...the ones of yours truly are up in Hanalei at the Bay near the Pier. Googlemaps will show you our ride...it was classic. The sound was huge...it was so loud I couldn't hear my own bike.
Anyway. Enough babbeling. More pictures. More Tuna, Less Mayonnaise.
I might add, click the pix for full size fun, and in many of these pix you'll find they're good wall paper material.
TOP: Me in at Hanalei Bay.
2nd: Bikes at the rally point...there's more to the right out of the picture, this was only about half.
3rd: Harley 883 Sportster. As I like smaller sporty bikes, I love this one.
4th: Chopper, possibly BigDog brand from either Oahu or the Big Island.
Engine might be a 117 Cubic Inch.
5th: Stopping for a break in Kilauea.
Not all the group is pictured...the lens wasn't wide enough to get 'em all!

The News from the Far West

2008-11-07T23:47:00.000-08:00

Greetings one and all!

With that abomination of an election behind us we can finally turn towards the Holidays and all the good fun that goes along with that!

Housing
As you may well know we are living with a family from church for a few weeks. This is a temporary situation, lasting only until the 1st of December at the latest. Meaning we'll probably be moving during the week of Thanksgiving. Oy Vey!
We don't have anywhere certain yet...there are a few possibilities floating around out there. The biggest challenge has been to find a place that doesn't have cats, being that Su is highly allergic to the little furballs. Also we are hoping to rent from someone we know from church, in order to avoid the whole "first-month/last-month" gig, as well as several other nasty thing you can pickup from people who are landlords, including parties, drug houses, lice, and a good dosage of stale cereal. Or something.
But I digress.
The Ross' family has been wonderful, and this is truly a wonderful neighborhood. Outside of the rooster farm (for cock fighting no less) just around the corner, this is a grand spot. It's fairly remote, (which explains the rooster farm), and located in a very lush part of the Kapa'a area.
The road is windy, narrow, and newly paved...most of which I like for reasons later stated.
The house itself is also wonderful...hardwood floors, no centipedes, spiders, or cockroaches.
We do love it here, but recognize the temporary nature of it all.

Family
Mom and Dad McIntire are staying up in Princeville, (high-falutin' central up there), in a nice vacation home owned by a christian couple. They too are in a temporary situation, as the lady they were looking to rent from is hedging about what time her place will be ready for rent. Fortunately, the couple who owns the house they are staying in now has graciously agreed to extend their stay in order to buy time for them to sort out their rental situation.
Josh is doing well at the college, and plans to stick around. His girlfriend may join him out here next semester...we all are hoping so. :)

Jake and Sarah are coming out in a little less than 3 weeks. They'll stay through the Thanksgiving holiday and into the early part of December for a total of about two weeks. We're all very excited as they may be contemplating a move out here.

Jobs, Other Stuff
I've started doing server shift at Pizzetta's now and this is a good thing. The first few days have been slow, which means less money for the new guy, but it also means that the new guy gets to keep his sanity. All in all, things have gone better than expected with the transition to server. The restaurant is doing very well considering the whole economic thing. Hopefully things will get better, but in the meantime we just pray for more shifts and more customers. We've got faith that God will work everything out as He has so far.
Su is still doing well at Starbucks. She is tasting coffees still and getting to know the whole setup, but so far her managers and supervisors have taken a great liking to her, and I think she's known as one of the more efficient and helpful people on staff. They seem to like her a lot. Again, God's faithfulness seems to take on a variety of shapes. :)
We sold the Stealth Bomber and got the Matrix licensed plated for Hawaii. I really do like the Matrix, but deep down we both want to be debt free. The license plate thing out here is weird...they do it by weight. So driving "small kine" is the best way to do it. :)
So God had us sell the Stealth and keep the Toyota...such is life. I'm not complaining too much...it's just weird that God had us buy that car just to pass it along to someone else who needed it. Go figure, right?
So we're down to one car. I sold Kevin, my dearly beloved scooter. I also sold a guitar I wasn't using. Combine that with a car sale and we had a nice chunk of change.
Which turned into a 2007 Kawasaki Ninja 250cc...the perfect beginner bike, and a perfect gas mileage machine. We paid cash for it thanks to a little help from a friend of ours here. It's due in this Tuesdayish or so, so right now I'll just post a pic of it, but I'll tell the whole story when it gets here and I get geared up and go sit on it and take pictures of "teh awesome". It's quite an interesting and miraculous story, even from it's original purchase and home on Maui. Here's a snap of it.
Don't worry...it's only a 250. And I have all the riding gear...when I post pix you all will have thought I dressed up as a Power Ranger for Halloween or something.
Anyway.
That's pretty much the news here!
There will be more updates as Jake and Sarah come in, and the bike, and we move again, etc etc etc. Who needs to watch TV with a life like this?! We do appreciate your prayers as we are living on the edge out here. Do write to us and tell us about how you all are doing! We miss you all!
Andrew and Su

Updates!

2008-10-28T14:33:00.001-07:00

Hey folks!!

We're back online from our place upstairs here.
Update News:

Andrew has been promoted to server at the Pizzetta restaurant in Kapaa,
and will start his training soon! WOOT and praise the Lord!

Susan is doing very well and is working with some girls from church and
helping them along in their walk.

The car sold! well...not the one we planned on selling. The Stealth had to go..
a couple from church needed a more economical car, so they bought our beloved
Stealth Bomber. They call it their "Mafia Car". :)
So we still have the Matrix...about to go get license plates.

Andrew is still teaching class with the Bible College and it's going well.
The students are very much enjoying Dave Ramsey's videos and all of them
would recommend the class to other students next semester.

Andrew has been helping Tim B build a solar powered system for the new Girls Camp.
Tim has been working like a dog on this project and it's almost done!
Hopefully pix to come when we get the panels setup and the wind turbine connected.
Right now the batteries charge off the generator and the system is solid.
Tim took a hit for 115.3 volts the other day...PTL that he is just fine. I witnessed my first
case of a mild electrocution...not fun!
But he is ok.

anyway...the piggies are well. hopefully more to come soon!
Blessings to you all!

andrew

More updates

2008-10-22T21:48:00.000-07:00

Greetings all...

short update here.
We're moving out tomorrow or the next day. Not sure what the internet situation is going
to be, but it's probably going to be favorable. We are most likely moving in with some folks from church that we know...some one has an upstairs that they don't use, and they're leaving the island for nearly a month anyway. So that doesn't look too bad at all. :)
The car has not sold yet, although someone test drove it today. Hopefully they'll be back and not talk me out of too much money.
Things are tight here...out jobs are going well, but getting the paychecks in has taken time. Hopefully I will be a server, getting waiter-sized tips in November, and that will help our little financial pinch. Us selling a few things is hopefully going to help out as well.
Anyway, I leave you with a picture of a map. The map is the Kapaa area...click on the pic for a hewg version.
The green is where I have ridden my scooter. The Red dots are the old house and our church. The blue dots are where I want to ride. The red routes are places I won't ride, simply for safety's sake, due to traffic, speed limits, or terrain. If I ever upgrade to more ccs, that will change. :)

News and Updates!

2008-10-06T13:30:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all!!

News from the Almost-Far-East...

Linus, the Piggie, has a new baby ..er...half-brother.
His name is Schroeder... 'nother Peanuts reference there. We picked him up this last Thursday...oh what a time it was. :) He has 3 brothers and a sister that were also up for adoption. Quite a cute bunch of piggies. Su wanted to take them all home I think. :)
We also have a new car. Well...new to us. It's a 1993 Toyota Camry that has been painted shaker-can style a nice shade of flat black. It's majorly ghetto...we call it the "Stealth Bomber". It's really not too bad...one of the guys from church actually did a lot of work on it, so at $600 it's a steal. Most importantly however, it is fully paid for. Which is always nice. We've been doing the Dave Ramsey thing and getting out of debt...so the Matrix has to go. Hopefully Craigslist will provide us with a buyer out here...we are aiming to sell it and get a little extra.

Andrew has a new job as a Floor Host at a local restaurant known as the "Pizzetta".
It's sort of a SportsBar atmosphere, the food is a bit overpriced - but second to none.
I just finished training and will hopefully move up to Door Host soon, and then on to Server. The place is under entirely new management, so making friends with the new managers has been a good thing.
Su is still working happily for Starbucks, and her training is going quite well also. She is working for both the Lihue and Kapaa stores on different days, and so she is getting the best of both worlds.

The Rent situation is looking a little better...some folks we know from church have an Ohana (multi-family dwelling) that they are just finishing rennovating with a second add-on.
This is actually fairly close to where we live now, but is located closer to our jobs and the church. So we shall see how that pans out. Another lady has offered us a room up here in the Homesteads, and that may also be an option.

Please Pray for us as we go thru this new season. We had not anticipated working "normal" jobs as much as we are, but the situation with the college has forced us more into the mainstream market place for jobs and housing.
- Pray that the Matrix will sell for a good price
- Pray that our housing gets resolved quickly
- Pray that the work here goes on as the Lord would have it to.

Our upcoming projects are to connect internet for the church, and obviously more video work as well as advertising and fundraising for the college as they seek to house the female students in a new locale.

Finally, I leave you with this video I made with Josh Turansky outlining the new area for the girls.
Enjoy!

Older posts

2008-09-23T12:21:00.000-07:00

Hey all!
Don't forget, the older posts can be found via a link down on the bottom right of the page...where it says "older posts". You can see our older vids and pix and posts and get caught up if you need to.
andrew

Moving...again...

2008-09-23T11:14:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all!!

As some of you may know, we live in a building rented by the Bible College here in Kauai.
This building is actually an old rest-home style care facility. It has 19 rooms, a common area or two, lots of bathrooms, good parking, etc.
The college has been renting it for-get this-a thousand bucks a month.
Pretty stinkin' crazy, ya?
So the Wailua House (as we call it) has been home to us, my folks and siblings, and around 15 girls who are students, plus other staffers.
Recently, our lease ran out and the college had been attempting to renew the lease for more money, and the idea that we would continue to work on the place-as it needs a ton of work. Unfortunately, the folks who own the property are not going to renew our lease...they signed with someone else who is going to turn this place back into a care facility.
So they wanted us out on the 15th of September...which was 4 days notice. Fortunately, the lease agreement we signed gives us 45 days, so we have a little more time then they'd like.
All in all however, we are all about to be homeless in a sense. The girls will be moving down to the church property and living in high-end safari tents like the boys do. My folks and siblings, and Su and I have no long term options at this point. So please, do be praying for us that we would find a good place to live. We are prepared to face the fact that our living situation that has been free so far may not continue to be free. Su just started at Starbucks and is enjoying it immensely. I have been looking for work for the past few weeks, but jobs have been drying up left and right...to the point of being hired, and then suddenly not being hired.
So that's the current situation here. We do have very short term housing available from different friends at church, but none are really viable options beyond a week or two.
Iiiiin other news...
Linus is doing well...our little piggy is growing a little at a time. He may be getting a baby brother...er..half-brother soon. We'll see. :) Our friends that breed piggies just had a litter and need a place for them. So we may help them out. ;)
I am facillitating a financial class at the college...it's Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace University" course which he teaches on DVD. It's an excellent course with good Biblical backing. I highly recommend this course no matter where you are with finances. It's a real eye opener, and very entertaining to boot!
I'm not sure if I've posted much about him before, but this is my scooter, Kevin.
He's a 49cc gutless-wonder...I ride him almost everywhere. This allows Su to use the car and go to Starbucks as needed, and allows me to go around and do job apps and other errands.
He gets about 80 MPG and tops out around 30 MPH. It's a real kick...also a great way to learn to ride before I get something bigger... :D :D :D The next bike will probly be named "Nigel".
I'm not sure why. It just will be. If it's a Ninja.
So that's pretty much it for now...there will be some new vids up before too long I hope...Josh (my brother) and I have been working on different vid projects. The latest one is hopefully going to get going soon...the girls spent a night down in the guys tents, and the guys stayed up in the girls house..so a one-night housing swap to get the girls used to the idea of tents. So hopefully the before-and-after interviews will go well and we'll get em down.
Anyway, that's all for now!
write me at yitzachm@gmail.com if you like!
thanks!

Andrew and Su

Newest KBC video

2008-09-17T15:17:00.001-07:00

This was the Kipu weekend, see pix below!

you can also find the video here and watch it in higher quality!!
Turn your sound up and enjoy!
don't forget to rate and leave comments!
thanks!

most Recent KBC Video

2008-09-07T10:44:00.000-07:00

Just a vid I did for the Bible College.
Narration by moi, some with the production and all that.
Handy if you plan on visiting too...and yes, that is a hint. :D

More Pix!

2008-09-06T21:17:00.000-07:00

a day at Kipu falls...there are various places to jump off the minicliff there or swing out
on the rope. The Cliff is sheer terror at about 20 feet or so, the rope is more physically demanding but not as bad when it comes to freak out factor.
All in all, a very fun day, but I still stink like scummy water. I am in the brown shorts with the
red-orange graphics...the rest of the people are students and staff from the college.
The highest just was from the tree above the pool at about 40 - 50 feet.
How's that work out? Well, let's just say it's a REALLY deep pool. :)

PIX!!

2008-09-06T13:32:00.000-07:00

Top Left: View from a hike that Su went on a while back. This is above our place, up the road
aways.
Top Right: Me picking papayas...or as I call them, "Sugar Squash"...Blech! at least the rest of the
fam likes them!
2nd down Left: Nawiliwili Harbor and the light house. Cruise ships and container ships come
and go from here all the time.
2nd Down Right: Su feeds Gabriel, a Macaw that one of the folks from the church owns.
3rd Down Left: Another view from Su's little hike.
3rd Down Right: the weekend cruise ship, headed past Kapaa (seen on the foreground), up to the Napali coast for the sunset. The passengers often see Dolphins, Sea-Turtles, and other wildlife.
This ship docks and departs from Nawiliwili harbor on the weekends.
4th Down Left: A Kauai morning as seen from an upper patio at our place.
4th Down Right: the Kauai Sun rise

Enjoy!
PS: If you click on any of these pictures, or any of our other pictures, you can view the full-sized originals and either save them for wallpapers on your computers, or get them printed at Costco/etc. Enjoy!

2008-09-05T13:30:00.000-07:00

This is our little boy Linus. We are going to be getting another little boy in about 3 to 4 weeks. We aren't sure exactly what he is going to look like. There are five babies to choose from and we have narrowed it down to two. One of them is gray and white and the other one is brown and white. The name for our new one will probably be Schroder. I am currently looking for work. My job at Shave Ice Paradise didn't turn out like I thought that it would so I am currently looking for something closer. I have an interview at Starbucks on Monday at 2 p.m. Anj possibly has an interview coming up at Coldstone. College has started for all the kids so this place is hoping most of the time now. Betsy and I cleaned out the gutters yesterday so now it actually drains. There was a half inch to an inch of sludge in the gutter, plus there were plants growing in it so there was a root system as well. The college girls are weeding the flower beds and it looks very nice. Sara just inherited a bike from the church that had been sitting there for ages and she and I are sharing it. I rode this morning and can't believe how out of shape I am. Betsy decided to find a man-o-war at Lydgate park this last week so that was exciting. Anj made a bumper sticker for the radio station and the liked it and printed it off and they were handing them out at the farm fair last weekend. I won a blue and purple turtle at the fair and his name is Zeke. Yes, he is stuffed. I will be participating in a women's bible study starting up on the 10th at 7 pm. We will be going through Genesis and doing character studies. Andrew is teaching a Dave Ramsey financial class for the college students and that is every Tuesday. His first class was this last Tuesday and he really enjoyed and a lot of the students said it was already their favorite class. This is Su just signing off. Sorry for the lack of updates, hope to have some more news for you soon and some more pictures. Love ya all and God Bless.

YAY! another new Video!

2008-07-16T15:48:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes it is true.
Updates:
Things are cruising right along here. I have been more involved with the worship team at church and have been playing a lot of guitar recently. Go figure, right? :-)
Su has been doing well as the new manager of the Shave Ice Paradise stand in Hanalei.
Linus, our guineapig has been growing like a weed...he now knows how to beg.
It's insanely cute.
I lost my phone (the new Blackberry) this last weekend and have been phoneless for the last 3 days...it has been driving me crazy and hampering a lot of what I am trying to do.
Pray that I find it soon if possible, and if not that I find a good deal on eBay.
Kent from church loaned me a surf board and so that has been a source of me swallowing a lot of sea-water...it's a lot of fun. Can't really beat it...the beaches have been great. Every weekend Su and I are beach bums for a day or so...outside of the sunburns, it's working out well. :)
Anyway, here's the latest discount vid from Hawaii here. I shot this down at Lydgate park.
Not much to see, but it's better than nothing.
Visit the channel on YouTube, and let me know what you think!
Rate it, leave feedback, etc etc.
Enjoy!

It's a new video!!

2008-07-03T17:37:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!
over the last few weeks things have sped up...the days are just flying by.
Su's job at the shave ice place keeps her hopping, and I've been doing video work
all over the place as well.
Recently the college wanted to make a video talking about price breakdown
for the upcoming semester. It's kinda short and sweet, and I hope you like it.
I just finished rendering it...Final Cut Express is a drag to learn, but once you catch on
it's a real kick in the pants.
More soon we hope! Enjoy!

MORE VBS stuff

2008-06-14T20:10:00.000-07:00

ok from the top left,

-cute little girl, 4 years old, and she can sing! Her dad is an awesome musician as well.
-Nother cute kid, the water slide was a highlight.
-My sister on clash day...quite...clashy... :)
-Snack time for this kiddo! (heck, they're all cute, I'm not going to belabor the point!)
-One of the aunties father. A really sweet old guy.
-Aaron, the drummer, dressed as Snorkel Bob.

VBS Week Pix!

2008-06-14T20:00:00.000-07:00

From the top left,
The Prize Table, The Waterslide, the mountain nearby, and a sunburst one fine morning.

Update

2008-06-09T09:27:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a few weeks since we got here...

what a crazy time it has been!
We have been fairly busy...to put it mildly.
This week kicks off VBS, Vacation Bible School as hosted by the church, and Su and I are both involved with that. I help with the sound and I'm also one of the "handlers" for the 5-6th graders (..now where did I leave my cattle prod...).
Su is running the water games....water games are GREAT choice here as the temp will usually rise over 80 F every day and with the humidity it gets rather warm. Su has also started at a shave-ice stand owned and operated by one of the ladies from church. She enjoys this quite a bit as the tips are good and the job is fairly relaxed. Since we don't have our car yet (gets here this Friday we hope), she rides the bus...which for $15 a month is a screaming deal. Gas here is well over $4 a gallon...and it will continue to rise no doubt.
I have been working for a local radio station affiliated with the church...87.7 FM, a Hawaiian music and Bible teaching radio station. Currently I am working on logos and bumper sticker ideas for them, although I may work on their website at some point.
There's lots of irons in the fire with the Bible College also...many of these have not been fully accepted or implemented yet, but as of next week we should know a lot more about what's going on and what ideas I will be working on. Do be praying for that as we have some huge opportunities here for video and media, including a huge openness from the local TV station.
Ah, yes, the picture! This is a gecko! We love geckos...they scurry lightning fast over the walls... they eat termites and skeeters...yes we love 'em! This guy is an adult...dono if it's a male or a female, I couldn't look at the bottom of its feet. These things will jump if they think they can make it...I've seen them jump 5-6 feet off a ledge down to the floor. Crazy!
They don't bite...the little ones are cute...about an inch long.
We recently adopted a guineapig that needed a home...a little baby boy. He's all white with fuzzy brillo pad fur. We call him Linus...pix of him and more coming soon.
We appreciate your continued prayers and your checking back in here...it really is fun being here and I sincerely hope many of you can come visit in the future.
Blessings!

Andrew and Su

More just pix

2008-05-28T13:43:00.000-07:00

more pix, these from the church, about 15 min from our place (which is up in the mountains).
click on teh pix for teh hewg version.

Just Pix

2008-05-22T18:15:00.000-07:00

And a note...click on the pix for a bigger one! Feel free to use as a wallpaper! :D

Settling in

2008-05-22T17:29:00.000-07:00

Hey folks!

Let the updates begin afresh!
I finally unpacked my PC and praise the Lord everything works, and it intact!
I'm pretty chuffed...was a bit nervous over the airlines chucking my stuff around.
So we have arrived in Hawaii, on day...4 I think now. One loses track of time here,
especially with your body sticking to west coast time...feels like about 530 pm
to me, but the clock says 230. Woot!
So have we told you about the fruit here? :D Yeah we have fruit here. That bunch cost about $10...multiple dozens of apple-bananas on it. And they are AWESOME...makes mainland fruit taste boring.
We hit the farmers market yesterday and got beets, cukes, lettuce and more. The fruit guy wasn't there so we are left to finish off the pictured bunch until next Wednesday. The Farmers Market runs on Weds from 3-...sometime later. We got there a bit early, and by then it was beastly hot. Fortunately, we had planned a beach trip on the way home.
Kahlea Beach has been a hotspot for me...nice waves, and a good spot to avoid undertow and nasty cross currents. We've been there twice already. Today however, we went to Lydgate Park, a large pool (about 1.5 acre) that is really and enclosed bay. They used rocks to close it off from the rest of the surf. The area is very calm, very shallow, and very populated with fish who have figured out that humans are an unlimited source of food. We further perpetuated this notion with a bag of hamburger buns today. It was wonderfully chaotic...snorkeling is a blast, and we WILL be back down there. My vids from it are a bit rough, but I hope to have one or two hosted today sometime. The wedding pix are up there too...it was a great wedding, and we had a lot of fun.
If Jake gets me the link, I do believe the official pix are hosted somewhere online for everyone to gawk at. I'll see what I can do.
I meet with Josh T. tomorrow...he is the head of the Bible College here, and will be outlining my various duties and responsibilities. VBS starts in about 2-3 weeks and we will be knee-deep in kids for the while there. Anyway I better get this hosted and keep the vid uploads going.
I do apologize for anyone that has tried to call me...cell reception on the island is about the worst I have seen anywhere. Though I loathe to do so, I think we might make the jump from Verizon to AT&T. ugh. But who cares what kind of phone you have if there is no coverage, right?
ferreals.
Talk to ya soon!

Blessings,

Andrew and Su

We made it!

2008-05-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

Greetings friends, gamer buddies, business associates, family!

Well we made it...after 2700 miles and 7 hours we finally made it to our new
residence on Opaekaa, (OH-pay-Kah-ah) street in the town of Kapaa (Kuh-pah-ah)
on the island of Kauai.
The temp is about 75-80ish right now as I type this in the morning...it will get hotter.
And the humidity is very high..if you like feeling sticky like a syrup bottle,
THIS PLACE IS FOR YOU! It's quite lovely overall.
Yesterday after we landed we dumped all our stuff at the house here
and promptly went to the beach...a very nice beach at that. The water will
blow you away...it's warm and you simply don't get chilled at all.
The house we are staying in is one that the Bible College has until August.
It is actually an old folks home, or at least was built as one.
It serves the purpose well, although the plumbing is somewhat sketch.
Hopefully today the guitar rig and pc will get set up...I do apologize to any
of you that have email my rogueguineapig address and not gotten a response...
I have not been able to check it for almost two weeks now.
The internet here is more then doable, and as soon as I get the PC all set I will
start uploading pix and vids...because a pic is worth like a thousand words or something.
Anyway, there is more to come!
Thanks for your prayers and for checking in here, we certainly hope you keep
checking in and getting a little slice of paradise every time you come by.

Andrew and Su

Final Update before the trip

2008-05-06T12:51:00.000-07:00

hey all,

right now we are packing up the final load to our storage unit before
we drop off our 2nd car and pack the main trip car for the final drive.
Our Civic is staying here in CO at a highly secret and undisclosed location.
The Matrix is making the trip out tomorrow...we just put tires on it yesterday,
and got the oil changed this last week, so it is all set for the long haul.
It will ultimately get put on a ship in the port of Tacoma and be shipped
over the Pacific to Kauai where we will pick it up after a few weeks. Hopefully. :)
Tomorrow we will wake early, and I hope to be on the road by 6 or 630.
We will pack up the last minute things, our toothbrushes, the piggies, and grab our bedding
and go. We will drop the bedding off at the storage, and start driving west.
Our route will take us thru Price, north to Salt Lake on the I-15, and then on the I-80, west across Nevada...the part were nothing lives. When they nuked it for tests, I think 5 sagebrush might have burned up. Maybe 4. After the nasty long haul across Nevada, we will reach Reno, our first oasis. By that time, it will hopefully be food time...because there is an In-and-Out there. Hence, I want to make good time. :) From Reno, the I-80 turns to the south, heading straight for Sacramento. Before we get to Sacramento, we will pull off in the little town of Auburn, where my brother Jake is getting married on Saturday. Hopefully on Weds night we will get a chance to hang out, hit up In-and-Out again, and then go swimming later on. Gotta test the new underwater case for the cam! :D
We will be shooting vids as we drive, and hopefully we can post one or two tomorrow night.
Depends on the internets at the hotel I spose.
Well I am about to tear down the PC, and I have a million other things to do, so we are signing off here, and hopefully we'll have some goodies for ya'll tomorrow night!
We'd appreciate your prayers on this trip, as it is a long and nasty one...and I tend to like to sleep on long trips...whether I am driving or not.
Blessings!

Andrew and Su

even MORE pictures!

2008-05-04T11:57:00.000-07:00

Well here we are again with more pix. :)
The shave ice stand is where Josh, my little brother works. The pic and the color tone of it all inspired my funky-disco cool text. He really wasn't born in '76. ;)
The plantation is the famous Taro patch in Hanalei. What is taro? I have no idea. Use teh interwebs to find out.
The beaches are real hawaiian beaches...that's what they look like. A BIG thanks to mom and dad for the great pix so far!
We leave Wednesday...last update from CO will probably happen sometime on Tuesday, then we will be using the laptops from the road to keep you up-to-date with pix, videos, and other shenanigans. More to come!

More pix!

2008-05-03T00:14:00.000-07:00

Greetings folks!
Since our last update, we have been packing more, shipping more, selling more,
and stressing more. :)
Our 2nd car, the Toyota Matrix has not sold, but we are looking into the idea of
shipping it over to Kauai since we can ultimately sell it for a nice amount there
when we are done. My last day of work was this last Thursday, and Su's last day
was today, Friday.
This weekend has been, and will be packed with things for us to do...BBQs, moving
the last remnants of crap from our apartment, packing our luggage and doing fake
packing "dry runs" on our car to make sure it all fits.
More vids are coming, hopefully soon, but I leave you with a few pictures.
These are from the family camp which my mom and dad are helping with in Kauai
this weekend. Image that...my folks helping with a fam camp. :)
They will probably totally narf up my nice block of text, but oh well.
It's 1:18 am and my guts are killing me so I'm not REAL motivated to make it
look perfect. :D

2008-04-24T10:38:00.000-07:00

I know the text on this is going to be so whacked out it's unbelievable...the three pix are from Kauai, the palms are down by the road, the flowers are from a local market, and the deck/parking lot is a view to the south from the church there. More to come as time goes on!

More updates!

2008-04-22T06:21:00.000-07:00

In non-video form now...

our apartment is rented! Huzzah! Someone came alonga nd took over our lease...
we are leaving on the 7th of May I do believe.
So far, our itinerary looks as such:
May 7 - Leave and get to NorCal.
May 8 - Parents arrive in NorCal.
May 9 - Rehearsal Dinner for Jake's Wedding.
May 10 - Jake's Wedding, followed by the reception and a drive to Salem, OR.
May 11 - going to church at Athey Creek Christian Fellowship.
May 12 - Driving to Leavenworth, WA to visit Su's folks.
May 12-18 - We will be in Leavenworth all week, visiting friends and family in the area.
May 19 - Back in Seattle, jumping on a airplane, and flying to the island of Kauai.

After that, who knows!
But we can promise that we will do our best to keep blogging and videoing stuff
and posting it here, on MySpace, and YouTube so all you fine folks can follow along.
We would appreciate your prayers as we now need to sell our 2nd car and get everything
packed up.
That all for now!
Mac

The BIG announcement!!

2008-04-15T20:31:00.000-07:00

Yes, the rumors are true...

no not THAT rumor! The OTHER one!
Ok, so first off, welcome to my Blogspot page here...blogspot is uber.
This is THE place to get news about me and Su...think of this as
Macsfoxnews.com ...the latest stuff is HERE.
The videos are going to be updated regularly as well I hope.
Anyway, watch the vid, it will explain more then me just typing...
which vid? The one at the top of the column to the left...yeah, that one.
Ok, now click it ...gooooood.
Enjoy the show. It was totally ad lib, this is REAL reality TV you're gonna find. :D
If you don't see the YouTube vids on the left, your browser or PC is lame,
and you must click this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzMns2PM2Us

We MAY be coming to a city near you...why?
WATCH THE FREAKING VIDEO!
ok I'm done.
Thanks!
luv

Mac

Welcome!!

2008-04-11T09:37:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the RogueGuineaPig blogspot site!

This site is designed to help keep you up-to-date and informed
on Andrew and Su and their adventures now, thru the move, and to Hawaii and beyond.
Pull up a chair, take a look at the vids, and stay tuned because there is more to come!

R.GP