Punahou School graduate Barack Obama may have no trouble adjusting to the January cold at his Washington inaugural to be president of the United States. He’s been living in Chicago.

But some of the kids from his alma mater in Honolulu have found a way to prepare for the inaugural parade on Jan. 20.

Seventeen members of the school’s ROTC marching unit and six cheerleaders are going to practice at Hawaii’s only ice-skating rink. They’ll be appearing in the parade with the Punahou marching band.

Temperatures in Washington were in the 30s Thursday, compared to the mid-70s in Honolulu.

The Ice Palace in Honolulu’s Salt Lake neighborhood is donating one hour of ice time on Tuesday so the marchers can get used to the cold.

Retired Lt. Col. Bob Takao, Punahou’s ROTC senior Army instructor, originally considered training his students in some sort of cold storage facility “like right out of Rocky.” And then he remembered the Ice Palace.

“Prepare for the worst conditions you can face, and you’ll be ready,” Takao said. “That’s what I’ve nurtured through my entire military career. We want them to be poised and proud and professional when they get to Washington. With cold feet and cold hands and cold noses, you won’t be too prideful and too professional.”

Obama graduated from Punahou in 1979.

Today’s oops #1:

A changing calendar can mean trouble when you’re running for political office.

Take Lowell Holtz, who’s seeking the job of Wisconsin superintendent of public instruction.

Holtz said he fell short on his nomination petitions because some signers wrote the date as 2008, even though they signed on Jan. 4, 2009.

Those signatures got bounced by the Government Accountability Board, which oversees state elections. The board said three candidates turned in the required 2,000 valid signatures by Tuesday’s deadline, but Holtz and another candidate didn’t. Holtz was credited with just 1,930.

The two were given until 5 p.m. Friday to make corrections.