Paper Plate Park

Yesterday morning Kenji woke up early to go hiking with our friend Jason and bunch of other people at Paper Plate Park, otherwise known as Kitatinny Valley State Park. I call it Paper Plate Park because someone went and put up paper plates with black arrows everywhere along all the trails there. I think whoever did it must have done it yesterday morning before 10:00am, because we had all kinds of rain and wind the night before, and the plates and arrows didn't look soggy at all.

There were twelve of us altogether. We would have taken a group shot of everyone, but Jason forgot to bring his nifty little tripod, and we were too lazy to figure out a different way to set up the camera. So this is the closest thing I could get to a group shot. I was standing on top of a stone wall next to a little boat launch when I took this.


Last autumn we got gyped out of foliage. The trees stayed green all the way into November. When the leaves finally changed color, it lasted for only about a week and then they all fell off and everything was gray. This year the leaves have been changing more gradually, starting about two weeks ago. Some trees have already lost their leaves while some are at their peak of color, and some are still green. So it's nice we get to enjoy the foliage for a lot longer this year.

I liked the lilly pads and leaves in the water:


And here are some more paper plates. Some places on the trail had four or five paper plates with arrows all pointing in the same direction. Whoever put the paper plates up must have really wanted people to go that way, since apparently one paper plate wasn't enough!

Hunting Birdies

The other day it was warm enough for me to open the window. Spammy and Musubi noticed a birdie walking around up on the very edge of our roof. So they both squatted in the window, wishing they could go catch the birdie. :)

Painting Plans Foiled!

At least for now.

So the guys who owned our house before we did only bought it to fix up and resell. They didn't care that they painted the bathroom with a flat finish that is impossible to clean!

Well, after a year of living in this house, we've finally decided to repaint the walls and ceiling, replace the vanity top and medicine cabinet, and install the exhaust fan. So Kenji and I wrote down all the necessary measurements, hopped into our car on this wet and rainy evening and went on our way to our local Home Despot.

I don't think we were even a mile and a half away when all of the sudden we could hear a low rumble from our car... then the sound of scraping metal. I pulled over to the side of the road and Kenji jumped out to take a look. It appears that somehow the exhaust pipe plum disconnected itself from the exhaust manifold! So now we have the loudest car on the planet. Bah.

Cornfield Maze!

Last night Kenji and I went with a couple of friends, Jason and Emily, to go play in the Stony Hill Farm Market Cornfield Maze. It was lots of fun, in spite of Emily and me being nailed by a flying ear of corn that some unknown maze-explorer-jerk-person threw! I think it glanced off her head and then landed squarely on the knuckles of my right hand. How rude.

The cornfield maze is open on Saturday nights until 9pm, so we planned to arrive there around 7pm. Well, actually we planned to arrive around 6:30, but no one got there till 7:00 anyway. The line was long, so Kenji and Jason stood in line while Emily and I went and bought apples to bring home and hot apple cider to warm everyone up before the maze because it was rather chilly outside.

Each year the Stony Hill Farm cornfield maze has a different theme. This year's was Space Exploration. They give you a little worksheet with games on it that you can play while exploring the maze. There were questions related to space exploration that you could answer to help figure out the "secret" word. There were also stations all around the maze that had embossed symbols of the planets (well, the planets plus Pluto) on them to use for crayon rubbings. Anything involving a crayon is fun, so collecting the crayon rubbings was the only thing I cared about in completing the maze. Jason and Emily were busy collecting all the answers to the questions.

I'm not sure how large the maze was, but looking at the map made it seem larger than it really was. But it was still pretty big. In order to read the map, you had to either purchase "Maze-O-Vision" glasses (cardboard glasses with red tinted gels for lenses), or have a nifty little red keychain flashlight which I just so happened to have. :) While the map helped you to find your way around the maze, it did not really tell you where you could find all the planet crayon rubbing stations. And I think maybe because this maze has very few dead ends, it seems a lot more difficut to navigate compared to other mazes like the Dole Pineapple Plantation maze in Hawaii. The Stony Hill Farm maze also had three bridges that took you over the top of some of the paths, so you could stand up there and look around over the top of the whole maze.

Kitties, One Year Later

It's been just a little over a year since we got Spammy and Musubi. Today was the first day I've caught them snuggled up together in a long time. Maybe because it's getting cold outside again.

See how big they are now compared to last October?

Gardening

Yesterday, I returned from Baltimore by way of Amtrak. Kenji picked me up from Newark Penn Station and took me to lunch. Then we went home and I had a nice long nap.

The rest of the afternoon we spent digging up our ugly weed garden in the front yard and planting tulips for the spring. I've always hated gardening; I think because my folks made me help fix my grandma's garden when I was a kid and I just wanted to play instead. Plus I really don't know what I'm doing when it comes to horticulture.

We found a lot of stuff while we were digging up weeds... like this little army guy Kenji found. Who knows how long he's been looking out for us in the trenches beside our front steps.

After Kenji dug up all the weeds, I was in charge of digging up the soil to plant the tulip bulbs. I didn't find anything nearly as cool as little soldier guy, but I did find a whole pile of rocks! Well they weren't in a pile until I piled them up in back of our garage, but now they are in a pile. I also found a lot of broken glass. Some of it looks like it came from different bottles, some green, some brown. The rest looks like it may have been from the cellar window that is right in the front of our house. The window that is there now is fine, but I wonder if it was broken before because someone entered the house that way one time, or maybe it was the dang kids who play soccer and football and every other game out in front of our house. And there there's garbage. We are always finding garbage on our front lawn.

Chubby Bunny

I've been away almost all week in Baltimore, helping out with our company's exhibit at the Natural Products Expo East. I enjoyed it, well all except for my feet, which were plenty tired from standing all day for three days in a row.

Most of the associates who are with our company do not work out of the main office where I work, and NPEE was the first opportunity I've had to meet some of them. And it was a chance to get to know some of those whom I've already met but don't see very often.

The highlight of the whole experience I have to say was learning a new (to me) game called Chubby Bunny. I was not the winner of this game, but I almost peed my pants I was laughing so hard. The president of our company won - he managed to stuff 12 marshmallows in his mouth - and he said this wasn't even close to his former record! I only made it to five, sort of. Well I definitely made it to four, and trying to stuff the fifth one in made me have to spit them all out. I have some video I'd love to show you of one of our other associates who tried to fit ten marshmallows into his mouth... but I'm told that what goes on at NPEE stays at NPEE, so I guess you'll have to settle for the tiny little still shots I've got here of all our contestants.

My other favorite thing about NPEE was that I found the most comfortable pair of shoes ever! They are Earth Shoes, and they look like this. Some of the chicks from our booth were talking about Earth Shoes on Saturday during the show, so during my break, I went to check out the Earth Shoes booth. I tried on a pair of the Ziggys and decided I wasn't going to take them off. So I purchased the shoes and that was that. Too bad I didn't know about Earth Shoes on Thursday when the show started!!!

Frenchtown

A couple weeks ago, Kenji and I took a little drive out to Frenchtown, which is right next to Pennsylvania. It's a cute little town, with several funky artsy-fartsy shops and lots of little cafes and restaurants. There's also a bright blue mule that hangs out right in town - and has now become my new Blogger profile image, now that I've lost my shark picture. Frenchtown has the most interesting antique shop I've ever been in - it must be owned by a doctor or scientist, because they sell a lot of science-related antiques.

The weather wasn't the best, plus we already had other plans to go buy food at Wegman's, otherwise we might have gone on a nice bike ride along the Delaware and Raritan Canal. But we did have lunch at the Race Street Cafe, and it was very yummy. I had gazpacho and Kenji had a pastrami sandwich. I think this was the best pastrami sandwich I've had a bite of (after all, I did let Kenji have most of his sandwich!) since we've been in NJ. I still like the pastrami sandwich at Sure Shot Cafe in Makiki better. Mmmm.

Updates Updates Updates

Ok so I finally got all my vacation updates done. It's about time!

• Seattle
• Bob's Moonwalk
• Pau Hana
• Labor Day BBQ
• Hawai'iloa Hike
• Hawaii Days One, Two and Three
  

Seattle Visit - A Vacation from My Vacation?

On Thursday I bid another fond farewell to Hawaii. But it wasn't so bad because I missed Kenji and was excited to see him in Seattle. Although I left Hawaii at around noon, I didn't arrive in Seattle till after 10pm. This leg of my trip I flew on Northwest Airlines, and unlike Continental, they make you pay extra for your food. I did buy a little bit of food, but that was not enough, and I wasn't about to shell out another $5 for a crummy box lunch. So it was really nice that Kenji and his folks took me to late supper at Red Robin after fetching me from the airport. :)

Kenji and I timed our vacation to coincide with his cousin's wedding, which was on September 9th. We both arrived in Seattle on the 7th, so that meant we had at least one day to kick around at our leisure. We did a little shopping, went to see Grandma, that sort of thing. In the evening, we had a date with Kenji's high school friend, Derick and his wife, Meredith and their new baby girl. Because they had the little one, we decided to go to Red Robin again, where it wouldn't matter as much if baby cried. But she didn't cry at all - not even when I held her. That's very unusual - babies always cry when I hold them. :P I offered baby to Kenji to hold, but he just got used to holding kitty cats - babies are a whole new ballgame for him. =)

Saturday morning we arranged to meet up with our friend Tanya for brunch. Tanya used to live in Hawaii. I first met her swing dancing, at an event I went to during my first visit to Hawaii in 1999 - I don't think she remembers me from that though. Anyway she was one of our bridesmaids in our wedding. About a year and a half or so ago, she moved from Hawaii to the mainland to take care of her ailing mother. Now she lives in Seattle. We had super awesome yummy breakfast at Macrina in Belltown. I highly recommend it. :)

While we were in town, after saying seeya to Tanya, Kenji and I visited Safeco Field to go pick up tickets for the Sunday game between the Mariners and the Texas Rangers. The last time we were in Seattle, longtime Mariners slugger, Edgar Martinez, retired from the game, and we got to see it. As part of his retirement, Seattle renamed one of the streets outside the ballpark to Edgar Martinez Drive. That was in 2004. They didn't have the sign up yet, so this time we had to make sure we got a picture of it.

The wedding was in downtown Seattle, in a club on the 17th floor of a building on 4th Street or something like that. Well I'm really not sure. Anyway, from the club there was a nice view of Qwest Stadium, where the Seahawks are kicking the butts of the New Jersey Giants as I type this. (Note I say New Jersey Giants, NOT New York. Their stadium is in New Jersey, so I don't know where they get off calling themselves New York.) We could also see a little bit into Safeco Field.

The wedding itself was pretty short and sweet. I enjoyed hearing how Kelly and Mark met, and the food was good. Here they are cutting their cake, which they didn't do a very good job of shoving into each other's faces like Kenji and I did. Kenji smashed it into my face so well that I had frosting hanging off my eyelash!!!

I couldn't get anyone to dance with me, except Kenji danced with me for the very last song. :) Oh and he also danced with me for the one where the emcee calls how how many years people have been married for, until he finds out which couple has been married the longest. Turns out the couple that won was all a sham. The REAL couple was Kenji's folks, but they conveniently skipped out on the dancing. :P

And see I learn new things about my new family all the time now. For example, who knew Grandma is a pyro? Her sparkler was the only one left sparkling after everyone participated in the sparkly send-off of the newly married couple. Who knew I could use three different forms of the word sparkle in the same sentence? Anyway, don't you think it looks like Grandma's trying to light the building on fire? ;)

Sunday was our last full day in Seattle. And full it was. We took Kenji's younger cousins to the game with us, and Tanya joined us as well. It was a beautiful sunny day, but alas the Mariners did not win. So now I am two and two for this year - I saw them win twice (in Baltimore and Bahstun), and lose twice (in New York and now Seattle). Kenji had the displeasure of seeing them lose twice in New York. :( But at least we got to take this cool picture of him at Safeco Field! Also, this was Tanya's first Major League Baseball game. :)

After the game, we all went back to Kenji's folks' house for a little get together with family and friends. The food, of course, was awesome. And it turned out that another friend of mine who lives in the area was able to come join us too. I call him Celery, but that's not his real name. He's one of my friends I met via a particular internet chat room we both used to go to several years ago, before I even moved to Hawaii. His online name is Celebok, and since that sort of looks like Celery, I decided to call him Celery instead. We had met in person three times prior to this time - the last time in December 2000. So after nearly six years, it was nice to see him again.

So back when we were planning this trip, it seemed to us that three or four days was plenty of time to do everything we wanted in Seattle. But time just went by too fast. Hopefully we'll get to make it out there again in the near future, maybe around the holidays, which I can actually do this year!

Hawaii Visit - Wednesday - Bob's Moonwalk

A week goes by too quickly when you are having fun. It was fortunate for me that my last night in Hawaii was only one day before the full moon - which means Bob's Moonwalk! Normally he tries to arrange his monthly moonwalks on the actual night of the full moon, but he made a special exception for me, knowing that I would not be able to make it on the 7th.

For this moonwalk, we were joined by a columnist for the Star Bulletin, John Heckathorn. He used to work with Bob when Bob was with Honolulu Magazine. So for that particular week's column, John decided to write about Bob and his monthly moonlight stroll - you can read the column here.

Sometimes the weather is really iffy on the night of Bob's moonwalk. This night was no exception. I was driving from downtown to Triangle Park where we were all to meet up, and by Ala Moana it started to pour. But I trusted that the weather would be different over on the other side of Diamond Head, and it was... sort of. At least it wasn't raining... for the most part. And by the time we got to our turn-around point, we accomplished one of our goals for the evening, which was to watch the sun set.

Bob's moonwalks always end up at some kind of eating establishment - usually people drive to it after the walk is finished, but this time getting to the food was part of the adventure, at least it was for some of us. After watching the sun set, we headed to Kaimuki by way of Puu o Kaimuki, where we had a nice view of Honolulu (you can see the ghost of Punchbowl in my blurry photo). We also did manage to have a a couple of very brief moon sightings. The photos are less than impressive, so never mind posting them. You'll just have to take my word for it. :P

Our final destination was Big City Diner, one of the first places I remember going to eat after hiking in Hawaii when I first moved there. :) Just some more pix of me and my crazy friends...

Hawaii Visit - Tuesday - Pau Hana Time!

Tuesday, September 6th was probably the most frustrating day for lots of people on the island of O'ahu... at least it was for anyone who needed to get from town to the west side. An Army vehicle was being transported without a permit on the H-1 from Pearl Harbor to Schofield Barracks when it smashed into a pedestrian overpass right by Aiea High School. The DoT engineers declared the overpass structurally unsound, and so the State decided to close the freeway until they could remove the rest of the overpass. That of course meant gridlock, and people spent as much as eight hours sitting in traffic trying to get home! I can't imagine that... I would have to pee my pants so bad!!!

Fortunately for me, I was not a part of all that mess. At all. I was already in town, had lunch with my friend Mary Ann at Mariposa, and then went for Blondies with Bob at Waioli Tea Room in Manoa. After that was one of my favorite things - Pau Hana!

Again for you mainland people, pau hana bascially means finished work... well which in turn means go out for drinks and pupus (appetizers) at a local watering hole. This Pau Hana was actually a get together of folks who are part of GlobalPauHana.com, a social and business networking site for people who live in or have lived in Hawaii and now live elsewhere. I used to be the Honolulu "instigator", but last year I passed the torch to Alicia when Kenji and I moved to the mainland.

This time the watering hole was Palomino's, in Harbor Court, overlooking Nimitz Highway. The bar was packed, not only with Pau Hana attendees, but probably mostly with people who were trying to avoid all the traffic for as long as possible. After all, in Palomino's we had a great view of Nimitz, which is one of the main arteries that gets you west of the airport, and in this case it was a barometer for how traffic was moving.

So here are some photos - you can actually tell this one is from the end of the evening, because Miles is wearing everyone else's name tag.

I think this next photo is of course a no-brainer. Miles has to know a shot like this cannot be passed up for inclusion somewhere on the 'net...

Sometime during the year that I was away from Hawaii, the Dave's Hui on GPH got some competition from a formidable up-and-coming Gary's Hui. The two on the right are Gary and Garry, and there's Rob, I think a Gary wannabe...

Earlier in the day, I think I had stopped by an art gallery store in Ward Center, where I picked up some free postcards that were advertisements for some of the contributing artists. Since I had a book of stamps with me, I decided to write a little postcard to the folks at my workplace, telling them I was not coming back. :P Then I had all my "witnesses" sign it for me. :)

Me with Susan, one of the founders of Global Pau Hana - she lives on the mainland too, and like me, was back in town for a visit.

And me with Alicia - who instigated this Pau Hana event, her last one, too. She's not leaving Hawaii (as far as I know) - just time to let someone else step up to the plate. :)

Finally, at around 10pm, the last of us at Palomino's decided it was time to brave the traffic westward. I was on my way down King Street when Daniel called and he could hang out for a while. So just before I would have been stuck in traffic, I turned around and went to Waikiki. At just about midnight I decided it was probably ok to head home - and fortunately for me, I chose the right way. H-1 between town and Salt Lake was completely clear. Rebecca started her journey home about an hour before me, but she took Nimitz... and only arrived home about five minutes before I did!

Hawaii Visit - Monday - BBQ

Monday, Labor Day, my friend Ricksta had a BBQ at his new place - a sweet house he's renting with two other guys, right on the water in Hawaii Kai. Rick did an awesome job putting this BBQ together - thanks man for hosting and all your hard work!!!

As you can see, it was a beautiful day, and there were all kinds of people there. I knew maybe about half of them, and the other half were friend's of Rick's from paddling, work, and his housemates' friends.

Anyway it was nice and relaxing (well probably for everyone except Rick!), and there was tons of ono grindz (delicious food for you mainlanders) and just lots of talkstory. Much of the talkstory was Rebecca grilling some of our friends for details about how they go together with their boyfriends/girlfriends, ha ha ha. There we are, all the girls listening very intensely to all the details. ;)

There was also a couple there who had a little motorized kayak that they were letting folks use to cruise around the marina. I got to be the driver when Alicia, Rebecca and I went out. I was glad that I managed not to crash into anything, even when pulling back up to the BBQ.

All the good photos were taken by Alicia, like this yummy one taken of the marina with the Ko'olaus in the background. I guess I wouldn't mind waking up at that house every day. I don't even want to know how much it costs, thank you very much. :P

This was an unusual day in that it was the only day in which I had only one thing planned, and ended up doing only that one thing. No dancing, no night fishing, just BBQ. :)

Hawaii Visit - Sunday

Sunday we got up BRIGHT AND EARLY (especially for poor hostess Rebecca, who is most assurely NOT a morining person!) for a wonderful and muddy workout, hiking up to the Ko'olau summit by way of the Hawai'iloa Ridge trail.

I've hiked this trail before, about four years ago. The trailhead is at the very top of Puuikena Drive, a very ritzy gated community filled with gigantic, some beautiful, some simply ostentatious, homes. Among the many amenities located by the trailhead is this little workout thingy... I'm not really sure how it's supposed to be used, but jumping seemed like a good idea to me. When the trailchicks and I did the hike back in November 2002, my friend Nancy and I hopped over all the beams together (I'm the one in the silly green hat). This time I couldn't anyone to hop with me. Weenies.

Yes, more feet photos. This was when our shoes were all nice and clean and respectable-looking. Later on, they were just plain muddy. But we didn't take an after-photo, so you'll just have to use your imagination. =)


The weather wasn't the best - actually it was quite nice down by the ocean, but the summit was rainy and socked-in with clouds, as you can see by our little group picture. The sign is proof we made it to the top. :P


Hawai'iloa Ridge has a lot of really steep bits near the summit. Going up it's not so bad, well aside from how tiring it is. While we were at the summit, it began to rain. As we were descending the mountain, it began to rain harder. We saw little streams of muddy water flowing down the trail under our feet. In several places, we had no choice but to descend on all fours, resulting in hands that looked like this:


As we got closer to the trailhead, things did brighten up again. I really liked the shady places, especially this part of the trail, where the tree roots are all exposed and criss-cross everywhere over the forest floor. I'm no good with identifying most trees, otherwise I'd tell you what kind of trees these are...


The hike all the way up and back is probably around 5 miles. We followed up with burgers at the Shack in Hawaii Kai - the best kine food to top off a nice strenuous hike. :)

After the hike and burgers, I think Rebecca and I managed to sneak in a very short nap before heading back out for dancing at the Atherton YMCA. I thought that place was supposed to have been converted to lame office space... at least that was the rumor a couple of years ago. So I'm happy to say that hasn't been the case. :)

Atherton of course was followed up by ice cream at Bubbies, which was then followed up by some more night fishing at the "groin" with Daniel. We still only managed to catch little tiny fish. And I kept losing hooks... either getting them caught on a reef, or lines snapping on me when I cast. Bah. But we stayed out late enought that it made sense to watch the moon set... at 2:53am!

Visit to Hawaii - Days One, Two and Three

Thursday

To catch up, on Thursday I got up at 8am New Jersey time, finished packing and hopped on a plane that left more than an hour late at 3pm, and landed in Honolulu only a half hour late at 6:40pm, Hawaii time. Got off the plane, picked up my rental car, and met my friend Dave for supper at Sushi Locomotion in Salt Lake. After supper, Jamie and Todd picked me up and took me out to Honolulu's newest swing dancing venue, Ong King Arts Center in Chinatown. It was a really wonderful and warm welcoming with all kinds of hugs and leis tossed around my neck, followed by lots of dancing that made my jet-lagged and sleep-deprived body feel like it was drunk from the thighs down. :) And as if flying direct from Newark to Hawaii, dinner and dancing were not enough, my gracious hostess, Rebecca, our friend Dave, and Rebecca's security-guard cat, Paco, capped off the day with lychee martinis and talk-story.

I should note that Rebecca's guest bed is the most comfortable bed I've ever slept in. I think it might be one of those memory-foam mattresses or something, though I did not check under the bed sheets to find out. I think her folks bought the bed for her because that's the one they know they will be sleeping in when they come to see her. So my compliments to Mom and Dad Rebecca for a great selection of bed!

Friday

Friday morning I woke up early, around 8am and went outside for a nice walk around the neighborhood. I didn't get very far before I got the idea of trading in my rental car, a big and clunky Ford Taurus, for the smaller, economy-class car that I had originally reserved anyway. Am I weird for wanting to down-grade my rental car? I don't care; it took only two miles and one annoying attempt to park in the jam-packed Salt Lake Shopping Center parking lot to convince me that I didn't want to drive a Ford Taurus for the rest of the week. So instead I ended up with a Chevy Aveo, a little $9,000 car whose only frill was the air conditioning. That was the only frill I needed, so I was a happy camper. Or driver.

Since Rebecca works a crazy schedule, she was able to join me and some of the folks from my former workplace, HTDC, for awesome lunch at Asia Manoa. After this, I took a nice walk around Kapiolani Park.

After my nice walk, I fought typical Honolulu traffic to pick up Dave from his workplace in downtown. We went to the not-so-well attended tech trade show at the Neal Blaisdell Center. Between the two of us, we paid $4 to park, and we figure we got enough t-shirts and stress balls out of it to make up for the cost of parking. Oh yeah, there was also a vendor there who's selling a service for sending video email messages. They let us do a demo, so you can see our dorky video if you click here. Please note - I don't think it works in Safari.

Next, we met up with some HTDC and other folks at Longhi's at Ala Moana Shopping Center for "yooj", which is HTDC's term for going out for drinks and pupus after work. :)

Following yooj, I have to thank Vivian for introducing us to Spices, a relatively new restaurant in the University area of town, on King Street, just a few doors up from Kokua Market. Vivian insisted we go try all their ice creams, and I'm glad we did! If I were smart, I would have written down all the flavors we tried - they are so unusual and you're not likely to find them anywhere else. My favorite was the Pineapple-Basil (who would guess that could be good?!?). Dave's favorite was the one with hot pepper in it. Viv likes the Jasmine. No one really liked the Durian, but I was happy to have tried it. I think it is an acquired taste, because I did try several spoonsful of it, and it did become slightly more appealing after each one. I think there was also Lavender, and the other two flavors were not unusual - Chocolate and Banana.

So you'd think that after all this, our day would be over already. But no... Dave and I parted with Viv after our ice cream experience and picked up our fishing buddy, Daniel, for a little night fishing over at the "groin" in Waikiki. Thad joined us too. We didn't catch much, just a few little tiny fish that we threw back.

Saturday

It's nice to wake up here to the sound of palm trees blowing in the breeze, and look out the window and see sunshine and blue sky.

Today's schedule of activities was not so packed. I met up with Rick, Alicia, Tom/Kevin, Bex, Dave and Jade for Dim Sum at Fook Lam in Chinatown. The food there is always so ono, and
the company a lot of fun. And it seems that this is the first time I bothered to use my camera. And I have to thank Alicia for making me a CD of all the photos she took - I've included some of those here as well. I love the sesame-covered balls that they snip in half with the scissors which makes them look like little fledgling pac-men waiting to be fed tasty ghosts.


For some reason, my friends like to take pictures of their feet. Can you tell which pair of legs belong to me? I'll give you a hint - my legs have seen very little of the New Jersey sun during the last year:

So anyway, following dim sum, I didn't really have any particular plans, other than to go dancing later in the evening. So Dave and I decided to hang out and talk story for a while at the park on Sand Island, then got some Jamba Juice at the new Moanalua Shopping Center. There are no Jamba Juices in New Jersey, at least that I know of. And it's not exactly convenient for me to go to the one that is in NYC.

After a nice little afternoon nap at Rebecca's, my hostess returned from work and we met up with my friend Rob at Spices - this time for dinner, not ice cream. Suffice it to say, dinner was quite yummy, but best of all, Rebecca and I managed to talk Rob into joining us for some dancing over at the Kahala (formerly Mandarin). It was a wonderful night of dancing - so many people there. The large turnout was due to this being the final performance of Betty Loo Taylor's jazz trio at the Kahala. I was just happy to have been there for this one last time.
It seems that after the Kahala changed ownership, some renovations where made to the lounge area. These renovations resulted in hotel guests being able to hear the music from their suites down on the far end of the lounge areas, which in turn restulted in complaints against all that "damn jazz" late at night. Weenies.

From the Martyzone

I figure that anyone who actually reads this blog on a regular basis is getting tired of seeing the same old post I made about a moth ago. Since then I took a trip to Hawaii to visit friends, and then went and met Kenji in Seattle where we attended his cousin's wedding. I have all kinds of photos, but I haven't had all kinds of time to post any of them yet. And since my friend Tiffany is going to pick me up in about an hour to go to a dance, I still don't have time to post them now.

But I haven't done a Martyzone posting in a while, and that's easy! This week, he closed his newsletter with this very pressing question:

Why does inhaling helium make you sound like a cartoon?

They Can't Eat You!

I was researching web hosts today for my job, and as a result of my search, I came across Go Daddy CEO Bob Parson's 16 Rules for Survival:

1. Get and stay out of your comfort zone. I believe that not much happens of any significance when we're in our comfort zone. I hear people say, "But I'm concerned about security." My response to that is simple: "Security is for cadavers."

2. Never give up. Almost nothing works the first time it's attempted. Just because what you're doing does not seem to be working, doesn't mean it won't work. It just means that it might not work the way you're doing it. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and you wouldn't have an opportunity.

3. When you're ready to quit, you're closer than you think. There's an old Chinese saying that I just love, and I believe it is so true. It goes like this: "The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed."

4. With regard to whatever worries you, not only accept the worst thing that could happen, but make it a point to quantify what the worst thing could be. Very seldom will the worst consequence be anywhere near as bad as a cloud of "undefined consequences." My father would tell me early on, when I was struggling and losing my shirt trying to get Parsons Technology going, "Well, Robert, if it doesn't work, they can't eat you."

5. Focus on what you want to have happen. Remember that old saying, "As you think, so shall you be."

6. Take things a day at a time. No matter how difficult your situation is, you can get through it if you don't look too far into the future, and focus on the present moment. You can get through anything one day at a time.

7. Always be moving forward. Never stop investing. Never stop improving. Never stop doing something new. The moment you stop improving your organization, it starts to die. Make it your goal to be better each and every day, in some small way. Remember the Japanese concept of Kaizen. Small daily improvements eventually result in huge advantages.

8. Be quick to decide. Remember what General George S. Patton said: "A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow."

9. Measure everything of significance. I swear this is true. Anything that is measured and watched, improves.

10. Anything that is not managed will deteriorate. If you want to uncover problems you don't know about, take a few moments and look closely at the areas you haven't examined for a while. I guarantee you problems will be there.

11. Pay attention to your competitors, but pay more attention to what you're doing. When you look at your competitors, remember that everything looks perfect at a distance. Even the planet Earth, if you get far enough into space, looks like a peaceful place.

12. Never let anybody push you around. In our society, with our laws and even playing field, you have just as much right to what you're doing as anyone else, provided that what you're doing is legal.

13. Never expect life to be fair. Life isn't fair. You make your own breaks. You'll be doing good if the only meaning fair has to you, is something that you pay when you get on a bus (i.e., fare).

14. Solve your own problems. You'll find that by coming up with your own solutions, you'll develop a competitive edge. Masura Ibuka, the co-founder of SONY, said it best: "You never succeed in technology, business, or anything by following the others." There's also an old Asian saying that I remind myself of frequently. It goes like this: "A wise man keeps his own counsel."

15. Don't take yourself too seriously. Lighten up. Often, at least half of what we accomplish is due to luck. None of us are in control as much as we like to think we are.

16. There's always a reason to smile. Find it. After all, you're really lucky just to be alive. Life is short. More and more, I agree with my little brother. He always reminds me: "We're not here for a long time; we're here for a good time."

The above article is included with the permission of Bob Parsons and is Copyright © 2004-2006 by Bob Parsons. All rights reserved.

Happy Monday!

It's a lovely day today - sunny, cool and dry - and look what I found in the Whole Foods Market over in Madison, NJ!

Yay! Bubbies! Boo! It's, um, wicked expensive! But that's ok, today I shelled out the small fortune because it's a special occasion which I am not allowed to mention. ;)

Bubbie's mochi ice cream was my very first exposure to mochi ever. I had just moved to Hawaii, and I was hanging out with some people I had just met through swing dancing. They weren't even from Hawaii - just a couple of instructors who were in town from Colorado who were conducting some workshops that week. They needed a ride back from town to Hawaii Kai, so I offered to drive them. Along the way, they suggested we stop for ice cream, which of course I'm always up for. Some local person had taken them to Bubbie's earlier, and they wanted to go back there and get more mochi ice cream. So we bought a whole big container full and pigged-out when we got to where they were staying.

Day of Updates

Yep, it's been a while and I really haven't had a lot of time to update my blog even in a quasi-meaningful way. Stuff's been happening. Jobs have been quit. People want to know the status of kitty cat toilet training. I will get to all that stuff, and add pictures and even some video...

Spam learns to play fetch and goes YouTubing!

I think I may have mentioned before that Spammy's favorite toy is Stick. Stick is a long piece of white plastic that used to be the seal around a bucket of kitty litter we bought way back when we first got the kitties last year. Well he loves to play with it so much, he often wakes us up in the morning, not to get us to feed him, but rather to dangle his stick around so he can chase it!

Yesterday I was busy for much of the day doing useless stuff on the computer, like discovering Google Calendar and Spreadsheets, and checking out Kevin Kelly's really cool blog about cool tools. While I was in the midst of all this, Spammy came into the room and sat down next to me and began to meow very loudly. When I looked to see what he wanted, I saw that he had carried his stick all the way into the office from the bedroom!

So of course I played stick with him. I wiggled it around, made him chase it in circles, and then I threw it out of the room and into the hallway. He ran out of the room, picked it up, and carried it right back for me to continue playing with him. How cute is that??

As I was just about to go to sleep last night, Spammy carried his stick up onto the bed. So I threw it into the hallway for him, and he carried it back. We did that for six or seven times. Then I think he got smart and decided he didn't want to carry the stick anymore and so he put it down somewhere out reach for me.

This morning I tried to capture him playing fetch on video, and was able to get him to do a half-hearted fetch at least once. Anyway, I played around with the video for a couple hours, added a shameless promo for Mochi Kids!™ to the end of it, and uploaded it as my first video to YouTube.com. Go Spammy!

House kitties get to go outside!

Last weekend we bought a harness and a little leash for taking the kitties outside for supervised exploring. As you can see from the pictures, Spammy is all about poking around and looking at stuff, while Musubi is a bit more skiddish about it.
After her first time outside (photo below), Musubi did watch Spammy walking around outside on several occasions, from her save perch in the window. I think this encouraged her a little bit, because the next time I brought her out, she was more willing to look around at stuff.
And imagine me going all my life and never laying eyes on a cicada until last week - and there here we are again - Spammy spotted one in the grass! Well, it was pretty easy to spot this one because at the moment we found it, it was having a fight with a bumble bee. The bumble bee left and Spammy tried taking a closer look... but when the cicada buzzed it wings, it scared Spammy and he hurried away. :)
Mr. Cicada was really mixed up in the grass, so it's hard to tell what he is. But I can assure you he's not the grey thing on the right. :P

One job down, one to go...

Ok, I don't plan on quitting my Run-A-Ton job anytime soon, but two Sundays ago (or maybe it was three?), I did finally quit my Crate and Barrel job. And that's why I can spend so much time updating my blog today!

As I've said before I did actually enjoy working at Crate and Barrel - my co-workers were really nice and great to work with (with the exception of the college slacker summer hires, not to be confused with the college student summer hires who were not slackers), on the whole the customers were pleasant and friendly, but most of all, I had a nametag that said "Marsha-Marsha-Marsha" on it! Oh, and the employee discount was nice too.

I'd have to say the big downside is that having to work a weekend day is pretty stinky if you don't have to. But the biggest reason I left was because I wanted to devote more time to Mochi Kids!™ activities, which I have been able to do to a small degree - since I left C&B I've created a couple of new designs as well as some more products. One of the reasons I haven't been able to do more is that I've been working a couple of full-time weeks, filling in for the gal who normally does the accounts payable stuff while she is away on vacation. Ha, I never thought I'd be doing accounting stuff! But it turns out I'm not too bad at it. Go figure.

Mission Impossible.

It's been several weeks already since I gave up on trying to potty train the kitties.

The two main reasons were these:

• Spammy loves to play with water. When the CitiKitty hole got big enough for him to stick his whole upper body through, all he did was play when the water was clean. At least he was smart enough to wait till the water was clean.
• Musubi wanted to drink the water. When the CitiKitty hole got big enough for her to stick her whole upper body through, AND Spammy had already kicked all the water out of the water bowl before playing with the toilet water, Musubi felt she had to resort to drinking the toilet water, and therefore stopped using it to go potty.

Oh well, we tried. I still think that if it were just Musubi, she would be potty trained by now. Mabye we'll try again in a year or two, when Spammy is more mature. For now, we even have had to move their water bowl to sit inside the sink in the half-bathroom, so that when he plays with the water, at least it just goes down the drain and not all over the floor!

Weird On-line Advertising

Ok, so this is one of those things that has probably been going on for some time and I only just noticed it today.

A few minutes ago, I was reading this article about how the International Astronomical Union has finally come to a decision on what defines a planet. (Incidentally, there are going to be 12 celestial bodies recognized as planets - eight "classical" planets and four "plutons".) In the article, I noticed that there are a few words that are text links. Expecting them to link to something related to the article or the particular word in the article, I was surprised to find out that they were nothing more than advertisements! If you click on the link, it takes you to the advertiser's web site. If you simply roll over the link, a little window pops up with a mini-ad from the same advertiser.

I don't know how I feel about this form of advertising. I guess it's easy enough to ignore, which is mainly what I do with on-line advertisements. But imagine reading a whole article in which many of the words are hyperlinked advertisements. That could be really annoying. And then it would be hard to determine which links are just advertisements versus links to information legitimately related to the article. Bluh.

What kind of bug?

So this evening I was making some focaccia bread (sorry, not from scratch - but it was yummy!), and as usual, while the oven was pre-heating, our smoke detector went off.

As soon as I got my hands out of the dough and reasonably clean, I went and shut off all the racket, and then made sure all the downstairs windows were wide open. While opening one of the dining room windows, I noticed a large clump of something on the outside window sill. It was the big huge bug you see here!

So anyway, I don't know what kind of bug this is, and neither does Kenji. If you know what it is, let us know. :)

Update:

Ok, fine, I did a little research and found out that our bug is a cicada. I showed Kenji the bug, and opened the screen so he could get a good look at it. Just as I shut the screen, the cicada tried to fly into our house! It scared the crap out of us and we jumped and screamed like little girlies. Well I did anyway. But I got the screen shut just in time, and Mr. Cicada just kinda bounced off it and flew away.