Ninja Sushi

Have I ever blogged about Ninja Sushi - my favorite fast food sushi joint? We particularly like the one near Pearlridge. We go there so often we sometimes get complimentary pot stickers, yummy. The people in that store are very nice. I am not saying this because they give us free food. They work hard to keep the store clean and orderly. They provide us with freshly brewed corn and barley tea. The first time I drank it, I loved it so much I asked how they brewed it. The owner went in the kitchen and came back with a small bag of roasted corn and barley for me to take home and make my own tea. So very nice people. Oh and on my last birthday, I went there for lunch and they treated me to green tea mochi ice-cream. It was a simple birthday lunch, nothing fancy but I was comfortable. Not so long ago I watched a documentary on the food stalls in Japan, and how these tiny places provide an escape and safe heaven for the working people of Japan. Well, the Ninja at Pearlridge is my very own food stall.

This is a picture of the drawings in the store.

Lion roll.

Spicy Ahi Donburi.

T-Dragon Roll.

A Riddle For You

Today at work, my boss gave me a pretty cool riddle that he heard on the radio. See if you can solve it.

What is ...
Greater than God;
More evil than the devil;
The poor have it;
The rich want it;
And if you eat this, you will die.

Leave your answer as a comment. Have fun!

Something missing

For the past couple days, I had this feeling that ... something was missing. It was rather weird because I would find myself standing in one spot for a long time, thinking what it was that was missing. To begin my search, I did some major gardening work this morning. Nope, it wasn't my green thumb that's itching. Then, I went shopping for a flower pot at Wally's Garden Center. Nope, it wasn't the shopping. As I exited the shop, a bright pink plumeria caught my eye. I quickly took out my camera to take a picture. YES! At that moment, I realized what was missing all this time. My body was itching to do something I haven't done for a long long time - taking pictures of beautiful things.  

That feeling is gone now. Look at the color of these flowers. The lighting is perfect - not too bright, but enough to cast some shadows on the leaves. I would say this is a pigture champ.

Photo Contest

Have to make this short because of my eyes - they are beginning to close. I finally gathered all my courage to enter one of my photos in the Costco Photo Contest. Looking at the photos of the past winners, I don't think I have a chance. Then I thought, I definitely won't have a chance if I don't submit anything. So, I submitted my favorite photo - close up of a monarch butterfly on an orange flower, taken at the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Kauai. Winners will be announced in February.

Our refrigerator broke on the night before I had to leave for Maui. Talk about bad timing. HappyOblivion was very nice to take care of transporting our precious food to the community refrigerator in the party room in the complex. He also cleaned the refrigerator and floor underneath. Today, the mechanic came and fixed it. Turns out the compressor was chooed up so fixing was minimal. Whew! Our precious food is now back in our refrigerator.

Oooo, because I worked so many overtime, my boss told me I could get Monday off. Yay!

We made history today

As much as I would love to get some sleep right now, I find it necessary to commemorate this historic day when I am still deeply moved by what happened just 9 hours ago. For the past two days, my co-workers and I were in a public meeting that was held in East Maui. We were there to resolve a contentious issue that has been going on for over 20 years between the taro farmers and the large irrigation company. Simply put, the issue is about water - the fight for water. Since November 2007, we have been working hard to gather as much information as we can about the East Maui area, its streams, and its peoples. We have collaborated with other agencies to conduct investigations of the area regarding the animals in the streams. April 10th, we asked the people of East Maui to give us more information about the area. All this information will be used to determine a standard - a flow that must remain in the stream most, if not all, of the time. This is a very passionate issue because this water is the lifeline of the taro farmers. Without it, they cannot farm, they cannot live. The water is also important for the sugarcane business. For the month of August and early September, we were in over 20 meetings, some 1 hour and at times 4 hours. We worked overtime almost every day and even on the weekends. We visited East Maui twice, hiking the stream, learning the irrigation system. Just two weeks ago, we produced 5 reports, at least 200 pages each. We gathered 1000 pages of public comments. In the two days before the meeting, we scrambled to gather our stuff for this meeting.

This meeting is where we present all these complicated information. Over 100 people attended. Starting at 2pm yesterday, we presented our materials in 3 hours and 5 minutes. Oral testimony lasted for 5 hours from 5:30pm to 10:30pm. Today, oral testimony continued for another 2 hours from 9am to 11am. Then, the Commissioners go into deliberation to discuss whether to accept our recommendation of the flow standards or reject our recommendation. It was a a very long, official and orderly process, just like that in a court. All of us, the staff, sat in the front in a row, nervously watching all these decision makers to finally act on a process that may resolve this water issue once and for all. When one of the Commissioners asked the Chairperson "Chair, are you ready for a motion?" My eyes teared up because I finally felt all the emotion in the room, and it was overwhelming. When they accepted our recommendation, I was so excited - an excitement quite different from winning a prize or meeting my idol. To end the meeting, one of the taro farmers did a prayer. During that prayer, I almost cried. I finally realized what the Chairperson meant by "We are making history tonight." Seeing the joy in people's eyes, to know that we are restoring flow to the streams that could save their lives, continue the Hawaiian culture, I was speechless. I physically felt the applause and it was enough to keep me going. Now, I know why I am doing what I am doing, it's not just numbers and regression equations, it's not about writing everything you know about the Hawaiian culture, it's not about how much you know in diversion structures. It's about the people, the water, and understanding what it means to them, and that we are making a huge difference to their lives. We made history today because for the first time, the Commission is restoring the lifeline to the islands.

Below are some articles related to this meeting. Yes, we are famous.
State water commission discuss eight Maui stream petitions
Historic ruling looms for restoring streams
Panel orders water into streams
Agency alters stream flow on Maui
Maui streams decision 'monumental' for state

Ya-wabloons

HappyOblivion and I finally won a cup for all the races in the 50cc and 100cc levels of Mario Kart. Below is the victory image at the end of the credits. Does my wii mii look like me? I tried to cut my hair short and wear rectangular glasses so I would look like my mii. No, seriously. The green race suit looks pretty cool on me. 

Lately, I have developed an addiction. Everywhere I go, I keep telling myself to get more ya-wabloons. When I wake up in the morning, I reach for my iPod to search for more ya-wabloons. Coming home from work, I turn on my computer to get more ya-wabloons. Before going to sleep, "just one more ya-wabloon" I thought. You would have no idea what I am talking about if you don't have a Facebook account. Fluff(friends) is an application in Facebook. It is like an online pet. You can feed it or have it race other fluffs. About a month ago, fluff(friends) introduced a Pirate Treasure Hunt to celebrate "International Talk Like A Pirate Day". The objective is to get these fluffs to dig for treasures - jewels and ya-wabloons (pirate money). With these ya-wabloons, you can buy more treasures to decorate your fluff habitat. Below is an image of my fluff habitat. As you can see, I have already found a blue ya-rubly (the blue jewel), and I found enough jewels and ya-wabloons to buy a flower sword. Now, I have tasked myself to get more ya-wabloons so I could buy a star crown and a bottle of rum. I am almost there, just a couple more ya-wabloons.....a couple more.

Not as planned

These past few days were full of disappointments.  On Friday after eating lunch with my co-workers in Chinatown, I was in search for my favorite fruit - the durian. I was hoping to share this fruit with people in the office, hoping to find a durian buddy. All I found were rotten durians. So sad. 

Today, HappyOblivion and I planned on eating lunch at Mana Bu and then watch KungFu Panda at the dollar theater. Well, Mana Bu was closed so we decided to eat lunch at Restaurant Row. Stupid, EVERYTHING was closed except for Hokulani, where we each bought a cupcake, and Subway, where we bought a Spicy Italian footlong.  When we stood in line to buy the movie tickets, the movie sold out! So, we bought tickets for the next showing of KingFu Panda.  Since we bought the Subway sandwiches already, we ate lunch really quickly  and then hopped over the Costco.

During the movie, kids kept on walking back and forth, left and right.  Babies crying, kids running, mothers yelling - it was like a daycare center. At one point, I put my feet down and the floor was slippery. I don't even want to know if it was pee or soda. Before the credits were over, everyone was in a hurry to leave so I could only see maybe half the screen. Grrr! 

After the movie, we went to Sports Authority.  HappyOblivion couldn't find his knee support thing and I couldn't find cheap swimsuits. Aiyaaa! Since I am a little bummed out today, I thought a food picture would do some good to this sad post. Below is a picture of a beautiful and delicious cupcake I ate at a party two weekends ago. It is chocolate cake with orange-flavored frosting.

Green Curry Sandwich

I haven't had a good weekend for awhile. For the month of August, I was either working or recovering from my work trips to Maui. Then I had to do loads of dirty laundry from my work hikes, and clean the stream boots which were covered with mud.

This past weekend, I was able to enjoy myself a bit and took a mini food vacation. On Saturday, we went to the Macy's What's For Lunch demo and got a taste of a very delicious open-faced steak sandwich, topped with green curry sauce (see photo below). Afterwards, we went crazy sampling the island food booths at Macy's - popcorn, shortbread, biscotti, oat bread, coffee, salad, pesto sauce, cookies, and cake. Then we hopped over to Shirokiya for more sampling - noodles, tempura, crispy shrimp, dried snacks, jelly stuff, tea, fish cake, and pickled veggies. We were pretty full but decided we should get some "real" food for lunch. We ended up with a thing of sushi and three mochilatos (mochi with gelato) with creme brulee, toasted almond, and tiramisu flavors. Guess what we did to end the day? We went Costco shopping ... for MORE food. 

Next week I am going back to Maui again, but this time to present our work, finally. I have been humming the song "Final Countdown" in my head for the past couple days. Matches with the occasion and my happy mood that the late nights are over, for now.

Blog, I miss you!

It's been ages since I last blogged. Well, about half a month but it felt like forever. So much has happened and I am not sure where to begin. I guess I should start by apologizing to my blog friends for not reading or commenting on their posts in the last 3 weeks. I have been consumed by work, obviously not by choice. I have a lot of catching up to do. Look forward to my comments :)

Shortly after the day of my last post, I found myself packing for Maui again. Work trip, same as last time so I didn't take that many pictures. However, I did manage to take enough so that I can stitch assist another more comprehensive view of Wailua Valley. It was yesterday that I finally had the time to merge all the photos (10 total) into one. The final product is 30 MB! When I zoomed into the image, the taro patches were so clear and defined. This is much better than my last attempt, which is a composit of only 4 photos. I also visited a secluded beach located at the mouth of Wailuanui Stream. Public access to this beach is "understood" by the community to be prohibited. If you look suspicious while trying to walk down to this beach, and you come across one of the locals, GOOD LUCK! With that said, you should thank me for showing you the beautiful view this beach offers :) No really, thank me!

Lately, I have become addicted to body boarding. Now that I have a new, more professional looking board, I am a little more confident of boarding at Waikiki Beach with the corals beneath me. I plan to take a picture of my new board so wait for my next post. Now that the deadlines are over, I have more time to go...today!

Oh so, I have been stalking the guys at the GameStop in Ala Moana for Mario Kart. For so long they sold out! Then one day, when I wasn't planning on getting the game because I gave up already, I walked into GameStop and asked, "By any chance, you got Mario Kart?" Ah ha! They have it and it was the last copy. The next day, I went to Best Buy and found tons of them lying on the shelf. Grrr! So much for my excitment. Anywho, HappyOblivion and I have been playing the game every night, and yelling at the TV for bumping King Boo off the road or bombing poor cute Toad. If you have the game, who is your favorite character? My favorite is King Boo; though Toad is an equal contender.

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 :)

What IKEA Furniture Are U?

Recently I have become a big fan of the Apartment Therapy (A.T.) blog. It all started with my good friends whom bought a couch not too long ago. While I was looking for the perfect couch, I stumbled upon A.T. and was amazed at how theraputic it was to look at all the beautiful spaces that even a non-designer like me can put together. At first, I was interested in the House Tours where people post pictures to give the public a virtual tour of their house. Many of the interior spaces were designed on a budget, with affordable furnitures and accent elements. So when I bought the couch (YES, I bought the couch!), I wanted to make my space POP like those in A.T. without the big price tag. I just realized that sounded ironic because the couch has a big price tag. Anyway, a beautiful space has to start somewhere and I thought the couch is the perfect way to start making our space more homey and stylish. As of now, the place still looks and feels like a college dorm room but I am working on it...which brings me to this picture shown below. Kind of ridiculous to have an essay as an intro to why I am posting this picture. Here comes another intro...I was looking at the IKEA furnitures (bookcases to be exact) and stumbled (along with a million of my other stumbles) on this nifty Swedish furniture name generator. Ever wonder how IKEA come up with their furniture names? Well, click here to see what IKEA furniture you are!
I am a bed named SFUI. What's yours?

Bad D!

Drivers in Hawaii are so crazy I have given them a name, the Bad D's.

When the light is red, come to a FULL STOP and LOOK before turning right. Bad D speeds up and try to beat the pedestrians.

When there is a car slowly speeding up on the freeway, signal and WAIT before changing lanes. Bad D speeds up, changes to your lane, and starts driving slow. WTF@*#&$^!

When the pedestrian is crossing the street, WAIT until he/she is halfway across the road before making the turn. Bad D waits until there is just enough room between the pedestrian and the curb for his car to squeeze through and then speeds up ANGRILY as a gesture that the pedestrian is walking too slow.

When looking for a parking spot, watch for the shoppers and be considerate of other drivers looking for a parking spot at the same time. Bad D drives 0.0001 mile/hour, stopping at every spot as if he is the ONLY one in the parking lot looking for a spot. Then when he sees an empty spot, he speeds up to the spot, almost crashing into the shoppers and the carts.

Now the taxi drivers are a different story. Most of them drive like they don't have a license!

My Couch, Ahhhhhh!!!!!!

On our list of things we need to buy, sofa is at the top. We have had the futon for 5-6 years now. After the first two years, we stuck a card board underneath the mattress so we wouldn't feel the bars of the frame when we sit. The third year my mom made a cover for the futon mattress. We added cheap pillows and a large foam for extra padding. The fourth year, I got tired of the cover and asked my mom to make a different cover. In the fifth year, we felt there was nothing we could do to make the futon more comfy so we decided to put sofa on our list of things to buy.

My good friends had recently bought a couch for their place from Scan Design, which is going out of business along with CZ Brio (aka A Furniture World Outlet). We had previously looked for couches at Honolulu Desgin Center, Inspiration Furniture, Scan Design, CZ Brio, and Z Design (now called Dezign Home) when we were shopping for a coffee table. We saw a couple we liked, especially the $13,000 bean shaped couch at Inspiration Furniture. Since then we (or I) haven't found a couch more beautiful than the $13,000 couch! Yeah, no surprise there. So when we saw our friend's new couch, we decided to give couch shopping another try. CZ Brio didn't have anything in the store except for one "It's a Bed It's a Sofa" couch that has the weird brown color. You know, the brown that is trying too hard to be brown but just failed? Anyway, Scan Design had a couple love seats we liked but too small for the place. There was an innovation futon we thought of buying at first but felt it wasn't such a good idea to buy another futon to replace the current one. So the next day we visited Dezign Home. Holy Moly we saw quite a few couches we liked. We were interested in a sectional with a chaise. We started with 1st floor and found our first favorite (see picture below).

We liked this couch because it is compact and soft, a little bit too soft. Then we went to the second floor and found the PERFECT couch! Compared to all the other couches at the store, this one is bursting with vibrant colors. Unlike many other sectionals with a chaise, this one allows for rearranging so the chaise can go in the left or right side. The frame has a dark chocolate color contrasted with the caramel colored stitiches. Twelve big fluffly pillows come with the couch and their colors, so beautiful! The ottoman also comes with the set and it is one comfy gigantic otto! This couch looks big but is it only 8.5' x 9.5'. It may be a little oversized at out apartment but we can manage until we find a bigger place. You know what the best part is? I like this couch more than the $13,000 couch at Inspiration Furniture! Ahhhh, I am insanely in love with this couch. This couch has it all. It is playful yet the neutral colors give it a matured look. It is comfy but the cushions are not so soft that won't support your weight. The colors are vibrant yet not too overwhelming. The browns are the perfect shades of brown. Now the question is, should we get it?

Crazy Legos

Last weekend, we visited Kahala Mall to look at people-sized lego sculptures. They were so amazing! There were 9 sculptures: galaxy, doggy, ball balancing on tip of a cone, green person with head detached, swimmer, spider, Hawaii flag, the Partenon, and person hanging off a wall. Of course my favorite is the swimmer. The spider was kinda' scary because it was soooo BIG! I wonder how long it took the artist to build all these sculptures.

Makiki Valley Loop Trail

To continue our weekend of fun as partial sickies, we decided to go on a relatively easy hike. We chose the Makiki Valley Loop Trail which turned out to be a perfect hike for a hot and humid day. The trail began as a nature walk with a small collection of native Hawaiian plants along the trail. Then a wall of green (see picture below) opened our eyes to some of the most amazing scenes that are even more beautiful when seen from up close (as opposed to the freeway).

We love the trail because of the canopy that protected us from the intermittent rain and the ever shining sun. The mountain is covered with different species of plants, which gave us a pleasant surprise with every step we took. Oh yeah and we had to watch our step, otherwise we could've tripped on the intertwining tree roots that carpeted the forest floor.
  
On our way back, a small section of the stream caught my eye as it was bordered by an eclectic array of plants with leaves of varying shapes. There are the broad-heart shaped leaves of the taro and the broad-elongated leaves of the ti. There are also small nickel sized leaves like those of mini roses, star shaped leaves like those of sweet potato, narrow-elongated leaves like those of a bamboo, and the fan shaped leaves that resembles a green flower. I love this picture so much I nominated it to be the newest Pigture Champ.

Happy Fourth!

HappyOblivion and I have been sick for quite some time now. On Independence Day, both of us felt good enough to finally get out of the house to do something, anything. In the morning, we went body boarding at Kalama Beach. The waves were great, around 2-3 feet. Then we ate lunch at Teddy's. At night, we wanted to avoid the crowd so we decided to watch fireworks from the topmost floor of our building. It was a quiet evening but a great celebration.
Above: For those of you who didn't have a chance to see fireworks.

People Always Leave

Aiyaa, everyone is leaving...people always leave. The sad part is not knowing if they will ever come back. A week ago, we held a farewell BBQ for our friend who is now working at the Kaiser in San Francisco. The BBQ was at Magic Island and I took some pictures to capture the beautiful day we had. 
Above: Looking up at a Rainbow Shower tree.Below: A cute friend that also came to say goodbye.

Goodbye Poki

My friends left yesterday to Baltimore. They will be living there for the next four years and hopefully no longer than that. I wonder how they are doing now and if Poki, their dog, is ok with the flight. Sunday night, HappyOblivion and I went to eat dinner with them, their families, and relatives. I had so much fun playing with Poki. When I said goodbye to her, she seemed to understand and calmed down in her cage. She will always be the best dog in the world!

Sushi Buffet

Sashimi Sashimi Sashimi Oy! Sashimi Sashimi Sashimi Oy! I have never seen and eaten so much sashimi before. One of the highlights of my visit back home was our sashimi buffet dinner. My sister ordered fish from an online company called Catalina Offshore Products. She ordered toro, maguro, sake, hamachi, scallops, and amaebi. In addition, she bought takoyaki, unagi and tamago. Mommy also cooked some delicious deep fried yam. Yes, we had a tremendous amount of food but we gobbled them all down with happy smiles. I particularly enjoyed the hamachi and the toro. HappyOblivion ate so much he couldn't get up from the couch. My dad loved the yam so much he ate 5 pieces. My sister probably ate 40% of the scallops. Everybody seemed like they had a second stomach. Below is a picture of the sashimi buffet dinner.

Another memorable event during my visit back home was the belated Mother's Day home cooked dinner. HappyOblivion, my sisters, and I were responsible for cooking 1-2 dishes for my mommy. HappyOblivion cooked miso wasabi salmon and pizza. My sisters cooked, pasta, beef stew, and warm chocolate cake dessert. I cooked corn soup and vegetable medley. The favorite was the pizza. My dad ate one and a half pieces and my mom ate one. Even my brother-in-law who cannot eat cheese ate a piece. I really liked the dessert. It was simple, delicious, and warm. My niece and nephew each ate one piece happily. Funny thing was that the kitchen was a complete battlefield during the cooking hours. I don't know how my mommy manages to keep the kitchen clean and still cook a delicious dinner for 8-10 all by herself in one hour. She is wonder woman.  

Sicky Vacation

I went back home for vacation and came back with bronchitis. Yeah, kinda' sucks. However, I was elated to see my family and my precious little niece and nephew. My parents may have grown a year older since I last saw them, but they look young, handsome, and beautiful as always. My sister with the babies look malnourished, probably from chasing the kids around and not eating healthy. The other sister who bakes cakes look more healthy, same with her husband. My niece and nephew are cuter than ever. The girl can talk in chinese pretty fluently. HappyOblivion was trying to teach her english. She was a little shy at first but as they spend more time together, she was more comfortable repeating words and phrases after him. The boy can walk now. He loves his sister and smiles whenever she talks to him. Ha ha, he gets gassy too! When he wants something, he plops down on the floor and yells "ma ma". Little does he know that ma ma could not afford to spoil him. My turtles look super fat. I bought them a new aquarium heater because they broke the old one, again.

Shopping was fun. A New Balance Outlet opened in Gilroy and HappyOblivion saw an empty bank account flash before his eyes. He bought 3 pairs of shoes and a couple shirt there, whereas I only bought one pair of running shorts. Well, if the 5 pairs of shoes I tried on had my size, I would've went crazy too. He also bought another pair of shoes from Bass and I bought the most comfortable pair of slippers at Clarks. I can't wait to wear them on Monday when I return to work.

Last Monday, I flew back with all the sypmtoms you can imagine: cough, runny nose, fever, chills, sore throat, post nasal drip, headache, muscle ache, lost voice. Landing was %@$&# painful to my ears. I had to continually pop my ears during landing that I looked like an exploding lemming. Now I feel much better. I called work to request for sick leave and I think I sounded like a zombie!

Peachy Anniversary

Like all other anniversaries, this year's was great! I regret I went crazy workaholic that month because HappyOblivion deserves a gift or even some planning efforts from me. I came home from work and I see peach-colored roses on my desk. They were so beautiful. Then he took me to dinner at Alan Wong's. I couldn't believe my eyes when I opened the menu! It was personalized with our names on it and signatures of the chefs! We ate until my dress couldn't expand anymore. Last came the dessert complimentary from the restaurant. The dessert had peanuts but I ate all the non-peanut portions and left HappyOblivion the rest, hee. Thank you for a wonderful time.

I must promise myself not to work too much. I was so stressed I had cold sores all over the insides of my mouth. This happens to my sister too! Now I understand...cure is to work less and relax.

Kuliouou Trail

Pictures from my most recent hiking trip at Kuliouou Trail, Oahu.

Birthday

My blog is so pathetic. I had promised details of my birthday in the last post but haven't had time until now. Bugger, my birthday was on a Monday so everyone had to work and couldn't stay up too late. The celebration began with dinner at my favorite fancy restaurant, Kincaids. We had their famous creme brulee for dessert, complimentary from the restaurant. Then we all went to my place for ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. Yummmmm... I received lots of gifts. A couple gave me a rocket bird shirt from Threadless, piggy magnets, kinder eggs, and a mini note pad. The concept of a rocket bird is super hilarious. Why would a bird wear a rocket? I showed my niece the shirt and she pointed to it and said, "That's a potato." I guess the fat brown bird sorta looks like a potato. Another couple gave me a Harajuku Lovers shirt from In My Closet in Kahala Mall. One time, I wore that shirt in Macy's and a woman came up to me and asked where I got the shirt, as if I didn't understand English. I guess the shirt makes me look Japaneseeee. HappyOblivion gave me a Little Angry Girl bag and Guitar Hero! The game is super fun. I beat the Easy level in just 3 days.....well, my shoulders and my back were in pain but no matter. I am now on the medium level and my pinky has to work. My sister also got me WiiFit and I can't wait to play that. Thank you everyone for making my birthday so enjoyable.

Bird in Wind

You know what's worse than being in an elevator where someone just farted? Well, being in an elevator with a couple, both wearing strong perfume. I have never felt so helpless with nowhere to escape for 10 dreadful floors. Not to offend anyone wearing perfume but if you do, little will do the job. Don't go drowning yourself in that chemical.

April is such a great month. Why? Well for starters, it's my birthday (details to come). April is also Earth Month, Ben & Jerry's birthday (thus free cone day), and Baskin Robbins' 31 cent ice cream day. To celebrate Earth Month, I volunteered at the Mauka to Makai Expo at Waikiki Aquarium on the 12th. At the event, I took a picture with an oopu (native Hawaiian fresh water fish) and a humuhumunukunukuapuaa (unofficial Hawaii state fish). Malama o Manoa had free tree giveaway the following weekend to encourage the planting of native species. HappyOblivion and I got a Mamaki tree, a palm, and a curry plant. I was lucky to have gotten the last Mamaki tree. Can't wait to make tea out of it, which is said to give the "buzz" without caffeine (people are crazier than I thought). This past weekend, I went to the Grow Hawaii Festival at Bishop Museum. At the native plants tour, I learned so many interesting stories about each plant that I wish I took notes. I also got a taste of the most delicious poi on Earth! Fresh poi is like taro mochi, chewy and sweet :) After the festival, we went on a short hike to Manoa Falls with some friends visiting from the mainland. Check out my Flickr account and Garden webpage for pictures and stories.

One of the exciting things that happened last week was capturing the next "Pigture Champ". I have always enjoyed watching the wind blow at the feathers of a bird. When I wait for the bus or sit at the park, I often find myself searching for cute poofy birds with messy feathers. At the Byodo-in Temple, I squatted quietly behind a tree just to take the picture below.

I absolutely love this picture. You can see that the wind has created a mohawk for the little birdie. The body also has a couple poofy parts. Aww, the wind has touched my heart.

I feel like...

...I haven't been online for months; yet, I sit in front of the computer everyday at work. I feel like I swam 100 laps; yet, I am out of breath at only 10. I feel like I have a million things to do; yet, I live lazily as if my to-do-list will go "poof" into thin air.

In the past week, my mind was taking a journey of her own. Daydreaming? Not so much since I was aware of my surroundings. Pre-occupied? Eeee...closer but I wasn't worried about anything in particular. Ah, overwhelmed and exhausted. My mind was like a computer that had too little RAM, so she was constantly working in the background trying to sort things out. Then she completely ran out of memory and was stuck in an infinite loop:

email professor a file on my research ... but gotta look for file first ... ooo, plumeria blooming ... reply an email about my old research project ... where is that stupid file ... gotta finish reading two fat reports on streams for meeting ... I forgot all about my research project ... gotta take notes on the reports ... eat dinner ... orchids still blooming ... looking for the file again ... crap, bought another orchid ... buy soil and perlite ... need to repot tonight ... buy outreach materials for work ... free tree giveaway ... resist getting more plants ... doh, got three more plants ... work website design elements ... what to cook for dinner ... headache ... gotta call parents ... who will water my plants while I am gone on vacation ... how are my turtles doing ... laundry ... wash bathroom ... visitors coming in two days ... pack lunch for work ... hydrologist think, think about recommending a flow volume for streams ... Flickr pro or not ... take pictures of my new plants ... update blog ... watch TV ... Tivo will run out of space ... pay bills ...

My mind was such a mess. I had a million things to do but I was so overwhelmed that I accomplished nothing! I can't seem to separate work from home, just like the old days. All I want to do right now is to sit in my lanai with my garden. However, I can't even do that because there is no time. Wake up at 6, go work, come back, swim, cook dinner, eat desert, sleep. I AM GOING INSANE! How does everyone do it? Just work the life away...grrrr.

Venting is great. Now I am tired and sleepy. I only wish I could be like my plumeria (see picture), watching sunrise and sunset everyday oh so peacefully.

Sweet Home Cafe

Yipeee! Last night, we went to Sweet Home Cafe for dinner. We saw this restaurant last time we ordered take out from Keawe Grill. HappyOblivion read a good review of it on a food blog so we decided to try it out last night. The restaurant is owned by a chinese couple whom greeted us with a friendly "hallo" spoken with a homey-chineseee accent. Every table is set up with a hot pot (shabu shabu) that cooks by induction (surface remains cool while cooking). The owner introduced us to some of the popular soup bases. We chose the "healthy herb" soup base because it was a traditional chinese soup simmered for 5-hours with dates and other dried ingredients. We also ordered the raw beef and a Lichi tapioca drink. When the soup and the rice came, we hurried off to the refrigerator where we got a couple of our favorite shabu shabu items: aburage, mushrooms, shrimp balls, wontons, and squash. The first bite reminded me of home. The soup was delicious and the rice was soft. Everything smelled so good I thought I was at home eating with my family. The lichi tapioca drink was refreshing. During the course of our meal, the owner came over a couple times to talk story. I think this was one of the best "eat-out" dinners I have ever had. I would definitely love to go again :)

After many days of staring at the cute pig on the "No Pudge" brownie mix that HappyOblivion got from Trader Joe, we finally decided to bake it. We couldn't believe how easy it was to make the brownie. All we added was plain yogurt and vanilla extract...no oil, or other fattening ingredients! Mixing it was a bit of physical work but the fudge was so fudgy (see right). We were suppose to let the brownie cool down before eating but knowing us, we couldn't wait. Awwww, it was so soft and moist. I love a guilt-free fudgy brownie.

On a last note, I updated my "Garden" blog with some new pictures. I also bought a native Hawaiian plant, Ihi, at Home Depot. I am not too big a supporter of Home Depot but it is the only place that sells native Hawaiian plants, other than the nursery out in Kaneohe. I will post of picture of it soon.

Peep Show

My friend send me this photo to brighten up my work day. You gotta admit, peeps know how to have fun ey?

In a PINCH!

~Sigh...I finally maxed out my Flickr account. My photostream will only show the most recent 200 photos I uploaded and disregard the rest. Hmmm, debating whether to upgrade the account and pay the stinkin' $25 a year or revisit Picasa, which I have neglected since I signed up with Flickr. Decisions decisions decisions, Choo-san PINCH! Suggestions are welcome.

I have been too busy lately to blog about my recent Aiea Loop Trail hike. Looking back, it was more like a walk in the park than a hike, except the last half mile when we did some trail running so we could finish before darkness spooks us all. Hiking in the dark would not have seemed so scary if my friend hadn't mention angry trees eating people alive, or hikers disappearing into the forest and never return. [shiver] Best not to think about it, yeah? Anywho, we were lucky to have hiked this trail in the late afternoon because we were all mesmerized by the soft rays of light seeping between the tall slender trees. My friend took a picture of the canopy dancing under the beautiful blue sky. We also saw an area full of mini Christmas trees with a color so green it made the trees look fake. Half way down the trail we could see H3 escaping into Halawa Valley. My favorite photo from this hike is the one on the left.

HappyOblivion and I have been spending a great deal of time saving Toad in SuperMario Galaxy for the past week. We played at least 2 hours a day and sometimes 4! We paid the price in the last two days when we were so pooped out we fell asleep watching the UEFA Championship games. I couldn't even wake up for work so I went to work one hour later than usual. So pathetic...who knew saving Toad could literally drain the life out of us. Gotta go, we have to go save Mailtoad now.