Wine or Beer?

I am never really much of a wine person though I like it more than beer. Beer taste disgusting except for Honu Beer and Corona (definitely with lime). I remember going to the Napa wine tasting tour and I didn't like the taste of red or white wine. The cheese and chocolate brownies were excellent! I did find one wine that I LOVE and it was Robert Mondavi's Moscato, a dessert wine. It was so sweet, like chinese dessert but with alcohol! Unfortunately, Moscato is only available in Napa so I can only dream of the taste here in Honolulu. Then my friend introduced me to Beringer's White Zinfandel which is available in Costco at 2 for $10. Cheap ey??? One taste and it brought me back to Moscato...it was great!!! I absolutely love it - the price, the taste, the color, the smell, everything! I urge all of you to try this if you haven't already.

Let's call it a night

It was yesterday that I finally felt the fresh start of new year 2007...with a little sacrifice, of course. At mid-day around 2PM, I made a smashing discovery in my own research coupled with a new model that I re-created. After 2 hours of fiddling with my newly discovered theory, I went to Kapiolani Park to play European Football (Soccer). It was intense, fun, and painfull. I was battling to gain possession of the ball but got pushed down. I landed really hard on my left wrist and now I could barely type or move my hand. Two hours of kicking and screaming did wonders on my legs which are now sore btw (ouchy). So what do you think came next on the agenda after burning all those calories? FOOD of course, gotta replenish those precious fat calories! I ordered the Chicken Tan Tan Ramen at Goma Tei Ramen Restaurant. It was delicious, especially the chicken which was cooked in sake. I also tried the Chicken Tatsutage (so tender and juicy) and the Gyoza (normal). After dinner, my friends and I went to see the chinese movie, Curse of the Golden Flower. I knew it would be graphic, sad, and lots of blood. However, I didn't expect it to be weird. The design of the palace was unreal. The exterior was gorgeous but the interior was RETRO! The colors clashed and the palace was glowing with all the colors on the color wheel. Yes, lots of gold but come on, hot pink, retro green, MSN blue??? Aiyaaa, not good! Then there was the ambiguous ending. I wanted to see everyone go coo coo but NO, they showed the stupid but beautiful dinner table with all the delicious chinese food. If only I could smell them, Doh! What else? The youngest brother who suddenly went crazy at the end and tried to kill his dad. He was happy throughout the movie, or maybe too happy... Anyway, everyone was coo coo from beginning to the end. My friend got sad after the movie (because of the blood) so we had to eat desserts to cheer her up, which was fun. I guess we can call it a night yeah?

This morning, I woke up with a purple hand. My left hand is really messed up x(
PS. Mame and babee, don't worry. I am OK :)

Testing Testing

I have been testing the new camera by taking random pictures. This picture of cutie oranges is very nice. They also taste super sweet and easy to peel. Snack sized fruits are the best when you are trying to avoid junk food.



This is a picture of Don Pens, the mascot for Don Quijote. I refer to it as Daiei because it was Daiei before it was bought. Since the one and only 99 Ranch in Hawaii is closing soon, this will become my major source of Asian foods. ~sigh.

Simple is Best

Last night after we bought the camera, we went to Walmart to look for a small and compact camera case that didn't cost $30 like the original Canon camera case. There wasn't any that was "perfect" so we decided to wait. Today I went to a cute Korean/Japanese store inside Daiei and I found the perfect case for our camera. It is actually a pouch for Kleenex but who cares! Simple is Best right? This is the MonoKoro Boo's moto. I am thinking of buying another one xP

We did it!

We finally did it! Since our old camera kinda went coo coo, we have been looking for a replacement. Our old camera was the Canon A70 that takes 4 AA batteries (Yeah, kind of a HUGE camera but we love it). It went lots of places with us and had a great life until one day, it bonked its head on the ground and went coo coo. If you are lucky, you may be able to get its lazy butt to work for 5 minutes. So we found a camera that we (or the whole world) love and that's the Canon SD800. It has wide angle, 3.8 optical zoom, a huge price tag, and NEVER in stock. It came out around December and the price never went down. There is even a shortage for this thing, can you believe it? Yesterday, we stumbled on a $40 off coupon at Circuit City. Since they told me on the phone that the SD800 was out of stock, we had to go there and reserve it. When we were at the store, the lady told me they had the camera in stock and I can pick it up immediately. I wanted to hug her and kiss her because after 2 months of taking fussy pictures with the coo coo camera, I went coo coo too myself! It was the best day of my life...maybe one of the best days x)

Blazy

Blazy - a new word created by ME. It means busy being lazy. That's what I have been doing lately. I am still in the vacation mode so all I want to do is to go shopping or eat out. However, we have to save money for a new camera so we went to Daiei and bought groceries instead. I can't believe school started and I have HOMEWORK due next week. Good thing I still have one more day to goof off, thanks to the three day weekend xP

The CW network is finally available in Hawaii's DIGITAL CABLE!!! For those who live in apartments that have regular cable supplied with the apt complex will NOT have that channel. So this news is actually not GREAT to us! On the contrary, this makes us (or only me) super mad. We deserve to have all our favorite channels because we are passionate TV addicts! Oceanic Cable owes us!!!

A weekend of eating and shopping

A weekend of eating and shopping, what a life! Just yesterday we were invited to a Turtle art show in Chinatown with FREE chinese pupus! They were definitely oily but how can you resist free food x) Then afterwards we went to Farrell's for ice cream and more oily foods. The ice cream was great and I think I would enjoy it more if I didn't eat so much at the farewell party at my school prior to the art show. Today we are going to the grand opening of Satura Cakes where they serve FREE samples! I think if you do a research of all the places that offer free food, you can live without ever having to cook. Itsn't that great?

The Waikele Outlets on Oahu is similar to the Gilroy Outlets in CA. There was Coach, LeSportsac, Osh Kosh, Clarks, etc... Anywho, I went to the hugest Sports Authority there and bought 2 freakin pairs of shoes. I bought a pair of really cool New Balance running shoes because I suddenly fell in love with running. They had the buy one get the second 50% off so I had to choose a second pair (like any normal shopping freak would do). So I bought a pair of Privo sandles that were only $20!!! I love my Privos!

Satura Cake Feast of Sweets

As I mentioned in the previous post, today is the grand opening of Satura Cake in Ward Shopping Center. We just came back from there and we ate soooo much desserts. We had a 20% off coupon so we went crazy buying cakes and pastries. Here is a list of what we bought:

Kona Coffee Blancmange - light and creamy, semi-sweet and bitter.
Mille Crepe - 14 layers of light and fluffy crepes with custard in between.
Lilikoi Cream Puff - citrusy and creamy lilikoi enclosed in flaky crunchy puff.
Mango Tiramisu - speechless, very delicious.
Mango Corone - the cream is so light and mangoey!!!
Mini Almond Chocolate Croissant - still in box, have yet to try.
Berry Danish - still in box, have yet to try.

All of them were to die for! We are planning to go back and use our 10% coupon for another batch of heavenly desserts.

Still in La La Land

I am back from vacation x( Yeah, I don't sound too happy because 1) I miss my family at home - the lovely yummy food and the cozy atmosphere with a beautiful christmas tree, 2) I am still lazy from all those days of doing nada in San Jose, 3) I contracted a cold from HappyOblivion so I couldn't play with my niece and nephew for the last two days, grrrrr, 4) I finished all the yummy chocolate almond cookies my sister made for me, and 5) SCHOOL. On the good side, I bought a bunch of crap from CA and I had a fun time unpacking and redecorating my apartment xP.


A set ot Le Creuset spatulas my sister got me for Christmas.


New quilt cover from Ikea that only cost $25.


A set of mini-hampers for my many many private-wear (sorry, no details)


A cube set to stick in the corner for all my stuffed animals.

No more Billie in Doctor Who x(

Even though I read the stupid TV Guide spoiler, I was utterly depressed when Rose Tyler (played by Billie Piper) left the show for good. She is so cute and energetic, a perfect match for the Doctor. I read on the BBC website that the next partner for the Doctor is played by Freema Agyeman, which confuses me because she was transformed into a cyberman (or cyberwoman) in the season finale. All the Cybermen and Daleks were sucked into the VOID and assumed to be trapped forever in nothingness. Did she somehow managed to escape the VOID using the fat nonexistent sphere (which by the way is totally mesmerizing...don't you think)?


Oh how I LOVE David Tennant. He is so gosh darn sexy and charming! I don't know what I would do when it's time for him to regenerate into a new appearance. Who will play the next Doctor Who? I notice that the Doctor's tend to become more and more handsome. I guess that's a good thing for the gals :P Although I don't mind having David Tennant as Doctor for the next...100 episodes???

Dazed

Hmmm, this little guy expresses my feelings really well. My workload has finally gone down. My giant poster just went into press today so a GIANT load off my shoulder. I studied most of the final materials, another load off. I have a presentation tomorrow but that should be a piece of cake since I have presented so much already. Then the paper to write...maybe on the plane ride to CA. After all that is over, I have to worry about the little things like paying my Spring 2007 tuition, register for classes, make appointment to clean teeth, etc... Then after conference I have to work on a grant that is due January 17th. Grrr, I am stressed again!

You see the "bed" that beep and bop is lying on??? IT'S A FREAKIN' AIR HOCKEY TABLE! I can't believe my friend bought us an air hockey table for Christmas! I was speechless because that thing is huge and to carry that from Walmart to the car is a lot of work, not to mention the crazy 5AM thanksgiving sales and the long lines. I have been playing that as a destresser. For some reason, HappyOblivion has never won a game :P I guess I am just too good xP

Oh I almost forgot. I am officially the webmaster for my Hydrology Lab website. I am so excited! Here is the link: http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/faresa/. You know how google is very festive with the holidays and put cute little graphics just to make things more exciting? Well, I am gonna do just that for the Lab website. Oooo, I can't wait until Valentine's Day :P

Close to being DEAD x(

After 2 years of having this blog, I am finally brave enough to post a picture of me ... sort of. Well, she looks a little too green which speaks my alien instincts for food, whoahahahaha! And maybe a bit dead which is true by the way, especially now that I am super busy with school and research. The horns are, you know, the little big devil me :P Hmmm, no clue about the tongue. Maybe I am more dead and lethargic than I thought. I don't get it. I have two classes now and I am busier than when I had 4 classes in the first semester! One more week of school left and I still have a couple papers to write, two presentations, and a poster to design. How in the world am I ever going to graduate? I ask myself that everyday and I will continue to do so until the day I defend my thesis. Oh and sorry for not posting for a long long time ... because SOME PEOPLE ACTUALLY HAVE WORK TO DO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ~ sniff x(

Man charged with livestock theft after killing pet pig

By Andrew Pereira

At over 300 pounds Porky the pig could be intimidating. But this was a pig with personality -- known by many who live on a lychee farm in Mililani Mauka off of Kapanoe Street.

"He loved people, he loved fruits -- he was a very happy animal," says a resident of the farm who wishes not to remain anonymous.

Porky was a celebrity of sorts, appearing in an ad for a local airline in which he was portrayed as a wild boar.

But porky, adopted by his owners five years ago after being orphaned, was hardly wild and those who knew the pig say he didn't deserve to be slaughtered.

However on the night of Sunday October 22nd, trespassing pig hunters had other ideas. "This guy came at our pig with the full intention to kill him," says the unidentified resident.

Porky had several favorite sleeping spots around some of the homes located on the farm. On the night of the attack he was sleeping next to some ginger bushes. That's when the unnamed resident and others heard a terrifying sound.

"We heard him squeal like we've never heard; it was a screeching sound and very loud, very distinct. It was pure carnage I mean there was blood everywhere on our walls, on our washing machine, on our dryer."

According to court documents 28 year old Joseph Calarruda and several hunting dogs cornered Porky behind a washing machine in one of the home’s carports before killing the pig with a knife.

"The whole time my husband was telling him this is our pet pig, this is private property, get your dogs and get out of here. The next thing we knew our pet pig was dead."

Friday evening Calarruda was Calarruda charged with theft of livestock, a class "C" felony and a more serious charge than animal cruelty which is a misdemeanor in Hawaii.

Calarruda has been in trouble before.

On June 9th of this year he was arrested after bringing a high powered weapon to his work at Campbell Industrial Park on Hanua Street. He was charged as a felon in possession of a firearm, but posted a 40,000 dollar bond. Trial in the case is scheduled to start November 27th.

Five years ago Calarruda was convicted of kidnapping and abusing his girlfriend.

"It makes me wonder what people like this are doing out on our streets," says the unidentified resident of the lychee farm.

A tree now marks the spot where Porky is buried. And although he can't be replaced, the family that owned him has been given another pig to help ease the pain.

“We’re still coping and dealing with the grief of a very beloved pet -- and it's hard,” says the resident.

If convicted of theft of livestock Calarruda could spend up to five years in jail.
Story Updated: Nov 10, 2006 at 6:27 PM HST

This guy should be sentenced for LIFE! &$%#@ SOB!!!

Candlelight

I am sure all of you have heard of yesterday's earthquake on the Big Island which was felt island-wide. It was a nice little wake up call from a good night sleep. 10 minutes after the quake, power went bye bye for 12 hours. Rummaging through the kitchen cabinets for food, we finally decided to walk towards the smoke we saw from our lanai. We drooled as the chicken was continuously turning on the grill. When we finally arrived, we found out we needed those stupid fundraiser tickets to get a meal. Grrrrr! Embarrassed, we walked away crying while people were laughing at us :( The supermarket next door was packed with people so we decided to go home and eat canned soup for lunch. Then darkness came and desparately searching for light, we lighted a number of candles. Ah yes, it was a night to remember (picture below). Then power came back on at 7:30PM but NO CABLE! Who needs power if there is no TV! Sigh of relief when Time Warner Cable was up and running before 9. However, PBS was down until after 2AM and we couldn't record Part II of Casanova with charming David Tennant as Casanova :( So sad. SO if any one of you have Part II, let me know!

Baby Elliot

My sister gave birth to baby Elliot today! I am so happy :) I have a nephew now! Yay!

Alfi Ball

I have been searching for a nice and useful carafe for a the past 2 weeks. At first, I didn't know that what I was looking for is called a carafe. I just wanted something to keep my tea hot in the morning. So I started looking... First I went to ROSS and saw all these different thermo designs. There were ones with push-button top, twist top, glass interior, metal interior, and internal tea leaf holder. Well, my needs then became more and more specific...ha ha. At Shirokiya, I saw a really nice $50 NISSAN thermo which has collapsible handle. Another one was a super shiny COPICO pot bellied carafe. Yeah, the shine had a blinding effect! Next stop was Macy's and a temperature control carafe was on sale for $30. It looked ok except for the obvious red colored push-button top while the rest of the carafe was silver and black. Whoever designed that did not have much experience with colors. Either way, I bought it because I was desparate and the temperature control is pretty niffty. The last stop was Compleat Kitchen and I was blown away with the designs. They've got everything from plain to shiny to colorful, clear to opaque, round to cylinderical to vase shaped. I saw two that I absolutely love and they are both made by Alfi in Germany. You know when you first buy a shiny pot or pan, it stays shiny for maybe a week and then the scratches ruin everything? Well, this one design is scratch proof shine that lasts forever. The double-glass thermo has a shiny silver exterior that is surrounded by a clear durable plastic that forms the outside layer. So you don't mess up the shiny silver part!!! Well, I bought the shiny one...that stupid shine. Just look at it, itsn't the shine mesmerizing? The glass interior and the simple twist top make this the perfect carafe for me. I used my Alfi ball this morning and the tea was so HOT it burned my lips!!! At least I know my carafe is not defective :)

Help!

What is TiVo trying to do to me? After I bought the TiVo Series 2 DVR, they came up with Dual Tuner, and now HD with THX!!! Better yet, the promo is you can transfer current lifetime subscription to the new Series 3 DVR after you buy it for $799 + $200 transfer fee. Very attractive offer but expensive.

One good thing is that I got lifetime right before they terminated the lifetime subscription option. Whew!

Hawaiian Wedding

It's been so long since I last posted. Same-o same-o, busy with school and research. Deadline at the end of September ~sigh. I did have fun on labor day. I attended my first Hawaiian wedding and it was so casual. The bride wore a simple brown spaghetti strap dress and the groom wore a traditional white and green wrap. Of course the beautiful super long lei was part of the ceremony. Oh and don't forget the flip flops :) The guests wore shorts and aloha shirts. The picture taking was FAST! One picture of the wedding party and one with everyone - total of no more than 5 minutes. Afterwards, we mingled for half an hour and it's food time! The reception was right next to my favorite beach (Kalama Beach) at Kailua and everyone changed into beach wear. Food was Hawaiian - Kalua pig, poi, lomi salmon, haupia, etc... After food was all day at the beach. I body surfed one small wave but I couldn't see anything in front of me. Then we boogie boarded the rest of the day. At 5pm we headed for a mini BBQ at the park, played freesbie, football and soccer.

I absolutely loved the wedding. No stress, nothing had to be perfect because a natural- freestyle-stressfree wedding is perfect. No fat dress to squeeze through the narrow bathroom door, no need to change into 5 dresses for reception and picture taking, and you don't get tired. I think my wedding will be something similar but with Chinese lobster!

Flight Delay SUCKS!

Flight delay REALLY SUCKS! Here's the story:

I was flying back from San Jose to Honolulu 3 days ago. At 6:35am, my parents drove me to San Jose International Airport. Instead of going 3-4 hours early because of the terrorist incident at JFK, I took a risk and went 2 hours early. When I arrived to the airport, there was no line for ticketing and security gate! I got through in less than 10 minutes. So I sat around with my parents until 7:40am and I went for security gate check. Blah blah blah...I went on the plane. Everyone was on the plane at 8:30am and I thought we could take off early. Waited, waited...then through my iPOD, I heard the pilot talk about a radio thingy malfunctioning. The radio thingy is supposed to let us land in Honolulu Airport. After half an hour, he said SFO doesn't have a replacement. Another half hour passed and they finally found a replacement at LA. Then we had to wait another half hour for approval and paperwork to actually borrow that thing. At 10:30am, we took off to LAX to pick up the replacement. My butt was seriously hurting from sitting too much! At 11:30am, we landed at LAX. Everyone popped up and stretched, went to pee, steal food, etc... It took them half an hour to replace the radio while more food was being stocked on the plane. At approximately 12pm, we finally took off to Honolulu. I sigh of relieve but my butt was still hurting. During the flight, they fed us good and gave us free movie. I drank lots of tea, juices, and water. From LAX to HNL was 5 hours and 40 minutes. We landed at HNL at 5:40pm(PST) or 2:40pm(HST). I was officially off the place at 5:55pm(PST) or 2:55pm(HST). I walked to the baggaged claim area and waited another half hour for my luggage. ~SIGH~ I was freed from the airport at 6:30pm(PST) or 3:30pm(HST).

I was so glad to see car traffic, the trees, the buildings, and my apartment. I was so tired, my back was hurting, my butt was numb, and my head was dizzy from the the natural sun. I cleaned up for a couple hours and we went to the Made in Hawaii Festival. That night, I only slept for 4 hours because of all the freakin tea I drank on the plane. So out of 24 hours, I was up for 20 hours straight! Flight delay really sucks!

Lots of fun!

Hi hi my dear readers. Sorry for the nonexistent blog updates. I have been...at home, resting, sleeping, and eating. As you already know, my home is in California and whenever I return home, I become more piggish than ever.

For the past week, I went on a tour with my parents to the East Coast. I am not a big fan of the East Coast and this tour made sure I am never to return, well at least to the crowded cities. The tour began with New York City. It was disgustingly crowded with air that smelled like humans and gas. Times Square is a small portion of New York that resembles Las Vegas at night. The FAO became a huge ToysRus with a miniture ferris wheel ride inside. We also visited many other popular tourist attractions such as: Ground Zero of Former World Trade Center, Wall Street, Federal Hall, Trinity Church, Empire State Building, United Nations Headquarters, Statue of Liberty, Fifth Avenue, St. Patrick Cathedral, and Rockefeller Center. My dad loved Wall Street and he actually bought a miniture statue of the bull on Wall Street!


A gum commercial I saw at Times Square.


Nathan's mouthwatering cheese hot dog.

From New York we went to Philly. I thought I could savor the taste of a delicious Philly Cheesesteak but I couldn't. We only went to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall in the morning and off we went to Washington DC. DC was a bit boring partly because of my disinterest in the politcal world and that I have visited the place before. Places we visited were: Capitol Hill, Ford's Theater, White House, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korea War Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

The fourth day was the second best day of the trip because we visited the Hershey's Chocolate World in Hershey, PA and the Corning Glass Museum in Corning, NY. We each ate a strawberry and chocolate ice cream at Hershey's and I bought a whole bunch of crap to commemorate my busy 1 hour and 15 minutes of touring the entire factory. At the Corning Glass Museum, we saw glass making demonstrations and lots of weird shaped glass items.
Hershey's Chocolate World sign.
The best day of the trip was at Niagara Falls. We saw the night view and the morning view of the falls. They were majestic. Pictures do not reveal the beauty of the falls. You have to be there to hear the roar as the water comes crashing down on the rocks below, feel the mist that forms a pure white cloud, and smell the freshness of the air around it. With our blue rain coats and non-waterproof camera, we took a boat ride and went under the falls. I have never felt so refreshed and fullfilled in my life! We were very lucky since the day was beautiful, sunny, and without rain. We also saw not one but 2 rainbows peeking out from the American Falls with the Horseshoe Fall in the background. We also saw a couple mini rainbows during the boat ride to the Horeshoe Fall.


Niagara Falls with rainbow.
The last day was a short tour of Harvard University and Quincy Market. Of course we ate lobster and it was okay. Not a great as I expected but I am satisfied. Lots of cool red brick buildings in Boston. The undergrad campus of Harvard University was beautiful of course. Oh and there was a statue of John Harvard that if you touch his left shoe, you will become smarter. You can guess if I touch it or not :)

Harvard University undergrad campus.
The tour schedule experienced a little change due to the terrorist attack in London. We had to fly home from the Logan Boston airport when the security alert was raised to orange. It was a bit scary when they said we couldn't carry anyting with liquid content. So we had to quickly rearrange our luggages so that all our liquid items were in the check-in luggage. Poor people in England had all their laptops, iPods, and cell phone confiscated! Imagine how much people have lost because of this incident. Some students or researcher may lose years of research in the laptop computer! Anyway, our trip was very nice and a bit surprising at the end :)