Kamakawi Word of the Day

otoko

• (v.) to be serious
• (adj.) serious
• (n.) seriousness

Otoko ia?
“Are you serious?”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!!!

Before I go any further, let me assure you that Keli had a wonderful Christmas. She got a new tunnel which she seems to like, and we gave her all meat baby food twice—plus, she got a ton of new boxes to play with! And she had quite a good time jumping around in the tissue paper. So don’t feel too sorry for her when you see this:

Now that’s a look that could kill! I can’t believe how patient she is with us. She’ll let us put pretty much anything on her, and will actually pose for pictures.

But it doesn’t means she has to like it.

And, of course, just to be fair, I also took a picture of me with the penguin mask on. So we’re even, she and I.

poyouyou

• (v.) to dangle

Mata ia i’i! Ae poyouyou i ipe otu mataitai i’i.
“Look at me! I’m dangling this pretty paw for you.”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!!!

I’ve got a couple of shots of Keli in this new pose she likes: three legs in, one stretched far away. It’s pretty cute:

I think she knows how good she looks. “Regard ye this paw!” she says. “Regard it and resist me not!”

[Note: To see the word this derives from, look up poyou.]

hematale

• (v.) to wake up, to awaken

Oku! Hematale ia i’i oku! A meliki ei lona!
“No! Don’t wake me! I’m too beautiful!”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!!!

Some don’t believe me when I say that Keli actually likes to have things draped about her (especially string-like things). I draped the sash from Erin’s robe over her while she was awake, and she snuggled right up with it:

She loves her strings! That and plastic. She loves plastic. She likes to bite it. We have to try to keep it away from her.

Today’s word derives rather regularly from hemata. Just an old-fashioned causative.

inana

• (n.) (a/the) lick

A inana li’i i ia!
“I have a lick for you!”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!!!

Okay, so this picture turned out a little dark, but I hope you’ll agree it was worthwhile. Every so often Keli, when she’s particularly tired, will allow her tongue to hang out a little bit. It’s like she’s so tired she doesn’t want to put forth the effort to retract her tongue.

And it’s adorable:

Woo hoo! So glad I eventually got that on film!

Today’s word derives very regularly from nana, but it’s a good word. I’d use it.

e’i

• (n.) foot
• (n.) bottom
• (adv.) under, underneath
• (prep.) below, under
• (v.) to go under

Li’u po e’i!
“Death from below!”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!!!

Erin just uploaded a bunch of pictures to my computer from her phone, and I found this one quite amusing:

So sinister! My sneaky little feline.

Today’s iku is built off the iku for hi. The right and left edges are joined to the low point to make a “V” shape indicating the e. Kind of looks like a bat… Too bad I already have an iku for “bat” (see fine).

aeiu

• (v.) to enter, to go into
• (prep.) into

Aeiu ia, talima!
“Enter, human!”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!!!

Here’s another shot of Keli enjoying the tower she got from her auntie Sylvia Sotomayor:

She loves the top, loves the middle (which is where she is in this picture), loves the little ball toy, loves the rope-wrapped pole—just loves every little bit of it! Christmas came early for her this year.

My hope is that familiarity with this new piece of cat furniture will soften her to the other one we got for her that she won’t touch. We’ll see…

nekamelaye

• (v.) to explore, to search through
• (adj.) explored
• (n.) exploration

Pale lapa i nekamelaye!
“A new house to explore!”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!!!

The next couple of Caturdays will feature photos of Keli on her new adventure hut:

Isn’t it fantastic?! Keli loves it! And she has Sylvia Sotomayor to thank! She recently moved, and realized she didn’t want to take her cats’ house, so she gave it to me. I installed it last Saturday, and after a few moments initial hesitation, Keli took right to it, and it’s become her new spot. She climbs all over it and has had a good time playing with the little toy at the top (video forthcoming).

Today’s word is a pretty cool word, I thought, but you need to see the word it’s derived from to make sense of it, and that’ll have to way. Enjoy this fabulous Caturday!

oaoa

• (v.) to be shy
• (adj.) shy
• (n.) shy person

Kanekoi oi’i i oaoa kiko!
“My kitty’s being shy today!”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!!!

Ordinarily, Keli is quite the poser, but today she didn’t feel like being photographed. In fact, she went and hid behind her stool:

It’s very hard to scoop her up while holding the iPhone at the same time (especially since it’s case is open, in order to take pictures. It’s gone sliding out before, and we have tile, not carpet!).

Today’s word reduplicates the iku for oa, which itself isn’t a word (or is no longer a word). Aside from this word, oa appears in other words as a phonemic glyph.

hemata

• (v.) to open one’s eyes
• (v.) to wake up, to awaken, to wake

Oku! Hemata ia a’a oku!
“No! Don’t wake up yet!”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!!!

It occurred to me today that I’d never reported on a daily occurrence with Keli. In addition to her co-opting my old chair as her personal spot next to my desk, she also uses it as a bed—but only sometimes. So every night I roll the chair right up next to the bed. Occasionally I pick her up when I go to bed and put her on the chair, and she purrs—and darts away. But then usually some time during the night she hops up and sleeps next to me.

The funny thing, though, is that she’s rarely there when I wake up (occasionally she is, but not often). Instead, what she does is right when I’m about to get up and start the day, then she hops up on the chair, purrs, and snuggles down to sleep. And she expects me to lie back down and go to sleep as well!

Anyway, she did that this morning, so I thought I should take a picture:

I turned on the light to better capture her, but that didn’t seem to help too much… It’s also dark here, because it’s raining (in Southern California! How ’bout that…).

Today’s word derives from…oh my goodness. Are you kidding me?! The most commonly used word in Kamakawi (and the most commonly-occurring here on the blog) and I haven’t done an entry for it?! Seriously?! Wow. Epic fail.

So, yeah. Today’s word derives from mata, which means (as anyone who follows this blog even a little bit now knows) “to see”. And some time in the near future I will do an entry for mata, since apparently I’m crazy and have not done so yet. What a world…

palei

• (n.) home

Ipe i palei lapa li’i.
“This is my new home.”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!!!

Recently Erin slightly rearranged some items upstairs. She put all my stringed instruments together in one corner so they leaned against the wall. This make it much less convenient to get at them, but it made a wonderful new little cave for Keli, and it’s become her new favorite spot:

I realize it’s kind of hard to see because Keli is such a dark kitty, but if you can make out her eye, it’ll help you make out the rest of her face.

Today’s word (the diminutive of pale) is the word for the concept of “home”. It can also be used to mean “little house” or to refer to one’s own house (or hut), but it’s the idea of “home” that it encapsulates.