DanRochman.com

It’s official - Otka has molted!

I checked in on Otka this morning, and found him bigger, browner, and hunkered down beside his old exoskeleton. I don’t have any pics yet, and probably won’t get around to taking any for a while, but trust me that it’s WAY cool. I’m planning on saving his old exoskeleton - I plucked it out of his terrarium to keep him from mangling (or maybe eating) it. Aside from being a fascinating, intricate object, Em’s mom has (for unknown reasons) decided that it’s good luck for us to keep it.

In the meantime, you can see some great pics of molting roaches here.

This has got to be one of my favorite news stories of all time. It’s so fantastic, it just HAS to be a fake story. But it ran in the New York Times, so I’m going to believe it. Plus, I *want* so badly to believe it. Can you believe it? Can you believe that Christie’s “Roshamboed” Sotheby’s?!? Yep, a multi-million dollar art auction deal was decided by a game of rock, paper, scissors. And they said that roshambo skills would never pay off…

I’ve always wanted to use that as a title - and now I have a good excuse. See, my good friend Sebastian scored a couple of free tickets to Hawaii by being an über-employee, and by working for a company that annually rewards about 1,000 of its über-employees with a free trip to a shindig held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village resort. A trip for two, that is - each employee gets to bring a guest. Yes, free round-trip airfare, hotel, and some meals. For two.

For a complicated set of reasons, it didn’t make sense for Seb to bring his wife and daughter along (relax - they’re all in Kauai together right now), which basically left him with an extra ticket. Being the saintly, guileless man he is, I was able to wrest that otherwise wasted second ticket from him - and now it’s gonna be two swinging Czech brothers hitting the beach at Waikiki. And you just know that what happens in Waikiki, STAYS in Waikiki. Well, the really good parts stay there - the rest I blog about.

The weather in Honolulu seems like it’ll just suck while we’re there (May 11 - May 15). Mostly Sunny, with a high of 79° F. Every. Single. Day. Can I get an “Amen”?

I’ve already got some good tips on places to check out on the island (of Oahu), but more are always welcome. I even got Em to score us a convertible rental car, so that Seb and I can cruise around the island in style. Oh, this is going to be sweet… And just so you know, it’s too late to start sucking up to Seb - my name is already on the second ticket. Besides, I’m not done sucking up yet myself - how many times has a friend scored YOU a trip to Hawaii?