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!