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I'o, nene and the ameteur hula hour

Today was a great day to be a bird watcher in Volcano. On my way to work, I spotted this i'o, or Hawaiian hawk, sitting on a wire less than a block from the winery. I got out of my truck and walked right under him. He looked at me, then refocused his attention on the grass at the road's edge. I hoped he was looking for a mongoose, although he seems a little small to tackle such feisty prey. The i'o looks a little smaller than a kestrel, a smidge larger than a magpie. It's a very small hawk, but impressive and beautiful none-the-less. The i'o is designated as an endangered species.

So is the nene, or Hawaiian goose. I got an even better shot of this happy couple today. Nene mate for life. The pair has been hanging out around the vineyard lately. Today, they spent the afternoon right out front. I was able to walk right up to them. I think they even posed for me. Say cheeeeeese. Aren't they cool?
Yesterday was Minnesota day. Today was Canada day. In fact, every day lately is Canada Day. The Looney is stronger than the dollar these days, so they're coming in droves. I like Canadians. As a rule, they seem happier than Americans. They're definitely less stressed out, even on vacation. Maybe it's because of all that money they're saving on health care. Besides, how can you not appreciate a country that refers to its one-dollar coin as the Looney and two-dollar coin as the Tooney. Or is that the Two-ney?
During the morning hours, we were a bit slow, so my coworkers and I had some fun being silly, dancing pathetically bad hula, eating too much chocolate but not doing too much work. There wasn't much to do. It's been slow off an on for days, so all the extra stuff we do when it's slow had been done. Of course, as my esteemed colleague Brittany demonstrates with such flair, there are always glasses to wash!
As it turns out, we had a very classy, professionally designed ad that we were able to modify for our upcoming Valentine's promotion ad. My cutesy but cheesy ad with the humuhumunukunukuapua'a was therefore scrapped. It's for the best, I think.
A hui hou. Aloha!
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