Greek Festival

The Greek Festival was fun. So much culture, incredibly unique, and not to mention the delicious food. The event was held at the McCoy Pavilion in Ala Moana Beach Park. With the semi-enclosed environment, and groups of people drinking here and chatting there, I felt like I was in Greece. It was an intimate atmosphere, overall a successful gathering and fundraising event. Love the food as well despite the relatively high costs. We tried something new this time, the loukoumathes - fried donuts (like andagi's) with honey glaze. Enjoyed this delectable snack next to a beautiful water lily pond (see second photo). I know my mom would love this water lily photo. 

Afterwards, we wandered to the beach because we were curious why there were so many tents lined up along the beach, and groups of people wearing uniforms (or matching shirts). We thought there was more free food! To our surprise and disappointment that no food was involved, there was a dragon boat race! My first time seeing a dragon boat race without tall people blocking my view, or people pushing me out of the way. I even took a close-up photo of one of the dragon boats (the yellow one not shown in the photo below).

Zhu Bao

I had joined in on a meme in which I have to list ten things about myself. These ten things must start with the letter that another person gives you. My good friend Emily gave me a B. Here are my B's:

Note: I do not take credit for any of the images shown above.

Bao.
Aside from the fact that I am crazy about bao - chinese or french, baked or steamed, garlic or cheese - I have a fated connection with bao since I was a child. I love fat chubby babies and I am glad I was one. My mom described me as a ball of fat. Whenever she gave me a bath, she had to pull away the fat creases to wash that unexposed part of the skin. Can't imagine how annoying that must be for her. I was so fat (and cute!) that my parents gave me the cutest and coolest nickname that to this day, I still say it with pride and joy. My nickname is a baked bread and it literally translates to "Little Pig Bread", pronounced as "Zhu Zhai Bao". Even without filling, the bao remains plump and deliciously sweet :)

Bedtime.
My favorite time of the day. I come home from a long day at work, take a hot shower, and then…zzzzz, it’s all over. The feeling of relaxing all my muscles, cracking all my joints, and dropping all my worries until the next morning is the greatest feeling in the world.

Blah.
I love this word for its simplicity and versatility. Use it to describe your feelings - "I feel so blah today." Use it to describe other people without offending them – “You look blah today.” Use it when you don’t feel like talking – “Today I saw my friend and she said blah blah blah, and I told her blah blah blah, you know how it goes.” Use it when you don’t want to hear your friend telling you the ending of Wall-E because you haven’t seen the movie yet – “I don’t want to hear it! [Covering my ears and yell] Blah blah blah…” Use it to hide your inattentiveness – “Hmm, well, what you said about the…you know, all that blah blah blah [making hand gestures as if you understood], I think it’s a great idea!”

Bloo.
Ever seen Foster’s Home for Imaginery Friends? He is basically a blue blob floating around and making funny facial expressions. Who would’ve thought a simple character like him could put on such a clever cartoon! Google him and see for yourself. He is, by far, my favorite cartoon character.

Booberry.
…or blueberry. Not my number one fruit (maybe number two), but by far THE most convenient fruit. Wash ‘em, strain ‘em, then pop them in your mouth. No seeds to spit out, nothing to pull off (unlike strawberries), and no skin to peel. Utensils not necessary, just your hands and teeth. They disappear so fast it’s unbelievable. What’s more fun is searching for the smallest baby booberry and the gigantic one, then put them side-by-side.

Boar.
By boar I mean feral pigs. Not too many people in Hawaii enjoy their presence simply because they are alien to the islands. Yet, they are just innocent creatures trying to stay alive, like all of us. Can’t we please think of other ways to control their population other than killing them? I have heard horror stories of how people set up traps to catch them alive, or hang dead ones on the fence to keep other pigs out of the yard. I have even seen a feral pig get slaughtered by a pack of dogs. Oh, I can still hear the loud squeals of the poor animal. Since this incident, I have cut back on my pork eating. I guess that makes me less of a hypocrite?

Butter mochi.
I LOVE BUTTER MOCHI! Just a second ago, I asked my co-worker for her butter mochi recipe. Everytime she makes them, I eat at least three pieces out of maybe 20? I feel bad, yeah, eating everyone's share. She makes the chocolate and the plain butter mochi, both of which are incredibly delicious. I love its sponginess, creaminess, and semi-stickiness. Hmm, since I also love haupia so much, maybe I'll go crazy with haupia butter mochi! I am a genius!

Blog, my sweet escape.
This blog is where I escape to free my mind, and let my creativity and imagination take control. I love to create. It's more than just making things look pretty. Design is all about putting a little bit of yourself in every piece of artwork that you create. I am not a professional designer or graphic artist. Nor do I want to be one. I want to create without criticism, and I certainly do not want to create for others to approve. Don't get me wrong, I have complete admiration for those who can withstand the pressure of working as a professional designer. I simply want to create for myself, to make me happy. And if you are delighted at all my colorful art and my obsession with turtles and pigs, that makes me happy too.

Birthmark.
I don't have a birthmark, at least I don't think so. But I do have something that resembles a birthmark. Actually, something more special than a birthmark (no offense to those who do have a real birthmark). When I was a kid, I used to swim everyday for hours under the hot Hong Kong sun. This was before all the talk about skin cancer. I was so dark I looked like a Filipino. Then there is this prominent X on my back that to this day, after switching to swimming in the late afternoon, I still have it. Yes, it is my swimsuit tan line. I call this my birthmark because it basically grew up with me. Swimming will always be a part of me and my back says so!

Bryan.
He is my best bud! Costco buddy, eating buddy, singing buddy, watermelon buddy, food fight buddy, TV buddy, couch buddy, cooking buddy, toilet plunger rabbit shooting buddy, free food buddy, food festival buddy, driving buddy, air hockey buddy…(I just noticed that half of these are related to food). He has made my life so wonderful that I need not ask for more.

Sorry, my B's are rather long but I hope you enjoyed reading them. If you would like to join in on the meme, let me know and I'll shoot you a letter.

Where Roses Are Green

I am so excited to have organized all the pictures and videos I took during my work trip to Maui. As I have mentioned before, I am reluctant to disclose any work-related information as the issues are rather controversial. And, who wants to blog about work anyway. But I did promise you some fun pictures and here is the first batch. The first day we visited a taro loi in Honopou. As I looked out from under a tree with a freshly made juice in one hand and a homemade banana muffin in another, I felt the peaceful life of living in the country. When I looked back at the owners of this beautiful loi who were sitting on an old wooden bench with their four wonderful dogs, I understood every sweat that went into growing their taro.

Within the property are some beautiful views that you cannot see in a botanical garden or an arboretum. The photo on the left is the auwai that feeds the taro loi shown in the above photo. On the right is a photo of green roses. First time I see a true green flower. It was an amazing feeling.
  
And look! My very first photomerge (using Adobe) of four photos I took of Wailuanui Valley. I have the Canon Powershot SD800 and I just love the stitch-assist function. Next time I will try merging 8 photos to create a larger view of the valley.

Daily Swim

I have been swimming in this pool for the past 4 years and I never once think to measure the distance I swim everyday. All I have to do is measure the length of the pool and multiply by 120 (60 laps). After watching the men's 1500m swim  yesterday in the Olympics, a light bulb went off [Ding!] and I decided to get my lazy okole out of the pool to finally measure it's length after all these years. Ok math whiz, here it goes.  Since I didn't bring a meter stick or a measuring tape to my swim this morning, I just used my feet :D.  Took me 76.5 steps to walk along the length of the pool. My foot is 9 inches long which makes the pool 535.5 inches in length. So, that's 13.6 meters, or 27.2 meters per lap. Multiply that by 60 which comes to a grand total of 1632 meters. One mile equals 1609.344 meters. That means I swim over a mile every day! To be conservative, let's just say I swim a mile everyday.

Okay, an Olympic swimmer takes an average of 1 min to swim 100 meters freestyle. This morning, it took me 5 minutes to swim 10 laps, leisurely (I was lazy). So, that's 2 laps or 54.4 meters in 1 minute. Hmm, I guess that's not too shabby. 

Alien in my lanai! Part II

I am so tired. Just came back from my two-day work trip to Maui. Despite the long hours (didn't return home until 10PM last night), the trip was valuable. Actually, it was a total information overload. I came back with scribbles (and doodles, ha) all over my notebook, handouts, and maps. Tons of photos and videos of the people we communicated with and places we visited. Now I just have to make sense of those scribbles and organize the files. I apologize that I cannot disclose any information about the work-part of my trip as the issues that are currently "hot" in east Maui are rather contentious. However, I can show you some fun photos I took when I have organized them.

Before I went to Maui, I saw another poisonous mushroom in my Mamaki plant pot. It was a rather pleasant surprise as this mushroom looked quite different from the other ones. This one opened up like a mini yellow umbrella, providing canopy for the keiki growing next to it. Looking from the top, the canopy is a perfect circle with pretty cool patterns. I am starting to wonder if I am the only person interested in poisonous mushrooms.   

Next Stop: Zippy's

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It's funny to finally see this sign above the elevator door of the Zippy's in Kahala. I was so happy yesterday to have eaten my favorite Zippy's dessert, the taro tapioca pudding. What made me even happier was getting it at the fast food side instead of the dinning area where I would have to pay extra for the ambiance and service. Well, I leave you to indulge in one of my favorite sweets while I continue packing for my two-day field trip to Maui. Ciao!

Racing Pigs

It's that time of the year again when pigs race for the ultimate oreo cookie treat at the Honolulu Family Festival. We were eager to see the cute baby pigs and since we had an hour to kill before the race began, we poked our heads around the famous red truck where the racing piggies rested. Whoa, the pigs grew BIG! Last year, the racing pigs were baby-sized. This year, they tripled their size ... assuming they were the same pigs as those that raced last year. Despite their smell and the unexpected growth, we still love them. They were all sleeping so peacefully until one of them saw me trying to make conversation. 

Then all the others woke up to find out what was going on. We took some pretty cool pictures in the very short time that the piggies remained awake and interested in us. After maybe five minutes, they went back to their beautiful nap.

Another fun show at the event was the flying trapeze. I haven't seen acrobatic and comedy shows for a long long time. The excitement and suspense reminded me how much fun I could have without my favorite television and cable. Well, couch-potatoing in front of the television is still my favorite past-time.  

Alien in my lanai!

When I came back from work this afternoon, I walked into my lanai and found this cute bunch of vibrantly colored yellow mushrooms growing out of the Mamaki plant soil. I gently pulled them out so I could smell them. HappyOblivion thinks they are not edible and I disagree. I thought the poisonous ones are colorful with patterns and glowing colors. This baby looks innocent to me. What do you think, stir fry or choobage can? 

Well, I did some research and bummer, HappyOblivion is right. The cute yellow mushrooms are poisonous to people, not to plants though. Lepiota lutea as they are called and they are commonly found in potted plants and greenhouses. You can learn more about them here.

Choo It Yourself (CIY), Part II

Yet another configuration of the couch that is perfect for watching movies. Last night we tested this configuration on the 2 part season finale of Doctor Who. After two hours of lazying on that couch, my okole went numb.

CIY Lesson #2: When you are living in an apartment but not sure how long you will stay there, buy furniture that allow for flexibility in function because you never know what kind of space you will be living in once you make up your mind to settle in an area. Plus, flexibility lets you rearrange your stuff to give your place a fresh look every so often. 

Choo It Yourself (CIY), Part I

I am beginning a series of what I call "Choo It Yourself" posts that will highlight our attempts to update our apartment. As I mentioned in the previous post, we recently bought a couch to replace our five year old futon. I am still in shock...omg, we bought a REAL couch, our very first couch! How fabulous is that? As you can see from the photo, our living room and office area is more defined. The plants on the far left side next to the lanai (shown in the second photo) and the plant on the coffee table accent the couch very nicely. The room looks a bit darker now that the couch has blocked some sunlight to the office area. On the bright side (no pun intended), the wallpaper actually looks good with this set up. As many of you may already know, I hate the wallpaper. I just don't get the whole texture thing and not to mention the color of it. Well now, it doesn't look so bad.

CIY Lesson #1: Everything could be beautiful if you match them with the right stuff. And if you are wondering what that thing under the coffee table is, it's a Wii board :)