Birthday Celebration Week

Last week was a big week for us. Two dear friends celebrated big birthdays - one seventy-nine and one ninety - and we helped make both joyful and fun.



Our friend Kenn celebrated turning ninety. He tells wonderful stories of his life in Hollywood when was the glamour and glitz capital of the world. He tells stories of bits-part acting in early movies, palling around with Ray Milland, Humphry Bogart and Lauren Bacall and many other stars of that era.

The party theme was the 1930s and '40s and everyone dressed up for the occasion.

Caren has always been one of his favorites (can't imagine why, but I'd bet its because she would have fit right in with that era and crowd) and so he delighted in her period dress and red wig. Stunning!, he said.

Wayne wore hls white dinner jacket with flask and all to match the theme and the feeling of the evening. The party was held in the party room and swimming pool area of Kenn's daughter Mary's gated community in Wailea. (BTW Mary is an American Airlines pilot). It was decorated in the signs of the times and the guests were festooned in feather boas, plus 4 golfing knickers and everything in between. The catered sit-down dinner was excellent and everyone had a great time.......especially Kenn, Caren and Wayne.



The second was a special celebration because Dixie has had a struggle with her health for nearly a year and her many friends were concerned that the birthday celebration might not happen. But she surprised and delighted us all by improving so much that the celebration was not only for her birthday but for her wonderful recovery.





A gaggle of her many friends met in the private dining room of Kalama Heights retirement community where Dixie lives. She fought to get home to KH after several months in the hospital and a recovery care facility. She has made remarkable strides to renewed health since getting "home."The party was anything but subdued because of the great joy that Dixie's recovery progress has been so remarkable and satisfying to all her friends

We're all waiting for next year's celebration of the big 80.

'Cabaret' Night

Maui is blessed with wonderful theater events and last night was a night to really enjoy. We went to a production of 'Cabaret' staged by Professional Artists of the Pacific at the Steppingstone Playhouse in Kahului.

In a word, (well, three words, actually) IT WAS WONDERFUL!



Beginning in free-wheeling, pre-Nazi Berlin, the musical is jam-packed with fun music of the flapper era with a poignant tale to tell. Of course, we went in full period dress to add to the fun.
Not surprising, we and our guests Suzanne and Endre, were the only ones who took advantage of the opportunity to "dress up." We do it whenever possible and always lead a pack to join in the fun.












Both Caren and Suzanne worked the then-popular table telephones to make new contacts. But in the end it was Wayne who got the girl - well, girls.

A great night out followed by some jazz by some friends of ours and wine and cheese at Mark Aurel Cafe. It was one of those really fun Maui evenings to blog about.



Caren, Suzanne and Endre

Halloween 2009

Halloween is a major event on Maui and adults are full participants. Crowds gather in Lahaina and Paia for scary and risque promenades in the street to celebrate All Saints eve.

We again went to a private party in a lovely - except on Halloween - but remote - read dark and scary - home on the cliffs above Kahului Bay. we were greeted by Jeeves at the door and welcomed into the inner sanctum. As usual the host couple had decorated the home with an amazing array of ghosts, goblins, skeletons, devils, spiders and a host of other weird and wonderful creatures? From the long driveway to the front door we had to navigate through graves with protruding corpses, hanging apperitions, skeletons, and spiders swinging from every cornice. Everywhere you looked there was something scaryer to see. The lighting was perfect and created a true feeling of a dark and dreary haunted house deep in the woods and behind the cematary where unspeakable things happen.






We were greeted by Jeeves, the butler - we were convinced in advance that the butler probably did it, whatever it was.


In the house there was an explosion of darkness! Every nook and cranny was filled with eerie stuff. And then there was more stuff.And, again, ghosts and ghouls were everywhere. Wayne was 007 (retired) in his signature white dinner jacket and Caren was a Bond girl - one with out a name but a lot of "whimsey."Even the ghoul in charge of the eating utensils had something to add to the bedlam. Angels and demons hang from the ceiling. Other little devils cried to be held.










It was a great party with all the ghouls around and an creative display of wonderful food. And demons peering out from some of the darndest places.