Blast From the Past

I know you've all missed me terribly, but I had a real lack of internetting time while my parents were here for the past week. Hi Mom! But, yesterday morning the three of us went to Safeway to do a little surfing of the web (after eating some delicious malasadas at Leonard's - couldn't let them leave without it!)and I had a random, yet delightful meeting.

A young man sat down at one of the chairs near us (My mom's thought: "What a nice looking young man") and I leaned over to Mom and said, "That guy really looks like Fred's little brother." Now, I don't actually know anyone named Fred, but if I used the real name then it would spoil the surprise for all one of you who reads this who also knew me in high school (Hi Sarah!). I kept trying to sneak stares at this kid so I could decide whether or not I actually knew him when I had a brilliant idea - check Facebook! Lo and behold, the recent pictures looked just like him and there was a brief Hawaii mention somewhere on the page.

So, I said, "Nick?" He looked at me for a moment and then it dawned on him who I was and said that he thought I looked familiar but didn't think he could possibly know me. Well, he did. Nick Whitenack lives like three blocks away from me! For those of you to whom this means nothing, Nick is an awesome fella I knew back in high school when I was in band (yup) and good friends with his big brother, Benji. (Also turns out that Benji will be visiting soon, so we can have a mini RB reunion.)

Look how cute and not at all awkward we look in this picture my mom made us pose for after we spent some time catching up.

My Big Accomplishment

I now can do real push-ups! That's right, no more knees on the ground for me. I did a whole three sets of ten push-ups at my workout yesterday. Just call me GI Jane.

My woes

Here's my best advice: don't ever buy a moped. Apparently they're about as needy as babies, and a lot less cute. It stopped running on Friday while I was at a stop light on my way to the gym. Had a full tank of gas, and oil, this time, so I knew that wasn't the problem. I love pushing my moped home! When I took it in the next morning the guys at the shop at first refused to look at it because they were too busy "unpacking" other mopeds. Finally one of them came over, got it started immediately, and told me the battery was dead so I had to kick start it. Argh. I tried that on Friday. However, they proceeded to tell me that if you wait to put gas in it when there's only a quarter tank left, it can suck in air and create a bubble that makes it stop. They think that's what happened on Friday. They act like I'm this idiot little girl whenever I'm there and are definitely jerks when they can't get money out of you. What I want to know is: HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT??? Was I just supposed to intuit the fact that you have to keep the gas tank full all the time? Thanks for telling me, jackass.

Then, it stopped running on my way to work this morning. I got it kickstarted and went and filled it up again - it had a half tank of gas - and it ran all the way to work. I'm not going to take it in yet in case there was another air bubble that was my fault from the last fill up. I'm just going to put gas in it every freakin time I ride it so that it's always totally full and if it stops again I can act like the shop guys are the ones who are idiots. It's really fun to put gas into though - ever tried to control the flow of gas that's meant to fill a 20 gallon tank quickly when you're putting in .46 of a gallon (like this morning)? It's hard.

And then we discovered that my favorite salsa is no longer produced =( My mom was going to bring out several jars to me when they get here on Sunday (yay for visitors!). The company claims that one of their taco sauces is the same thing, so we'll see. Unfortunately it's only available online and then we're back to the problem of not being able to get it shipped to my PO Box...

Here's my picture for today - it's kind of random, but it makes me happy. This was taken at the Waipa Foundation in Kaua'i.

Belated Pictures

Hi everyone! Sorry that it's been soooo long since I've updated. I'm just going to post my bread pictures that I promised, and some pictures of my new shoes =)

These were my cheer up shoes a couple weeks ago =)

Adventures in Baking

On Sunday I baked my first loaf of bread, ever. It turned out okay, just a little bland. Sure is yummy with butter though =) My favorite part of the process was definitely "punching" the dough down after it had risen. Deflating the dough was very satisfying. Overall it was really easy and something I think I'll continue doing. Kneading it wasn't so bad, although I was watching American Gangster at the same time, so it didn't seem quite so long. (First movie I've liked Russell Crowe in, btw...) Our DVD player is on the fritz and refusing to do anything, including turn off. Wouldn't be so bad because I have my laptop, except for the fact that my Moulin Rouge special features disc is now trapped inside the DVD player. I swear, every piece of technology I touch freaks out!

The bread actually makes a great foil to the homemade chicken sausage I got at the farmers' market on Saturday. Guess I'll mark that recipe as one for "buns."

I took pictures of the bread, but continue to forget to transfer them to my jump drive so I can put them up at work, so I'm going to post this now and hope eventually I remember the pics.

Grumpy

A version of my happy place. It's a beach in Kaua'i. I don't have any North Shore of Oahu pictures on my work computer.

Ugh, this has been a crappy week so far...

Yesterday morning I woke up and realized that the ruby from my ring was missing. My parents gave me the ring for my high school graduation and 18th birthday, and I've rarely taken it off in the last seven years. Needless to say, the loss of the stone has made me rather sad. Although, the new girl staying at the house is incredibly sweet and apparently checked the whole house for it while I was at the gym.

Ah yes, the gym. On Monday we ended the session with situps, something we usually do toward the early middle of the session, and this was when I cried. Ordinarily I can get through the situps with relative ease, but this time I attempted to haul my torso up to my knees and just kind of flopped back down. The second attempt was no better. What the hell?? My trainer tried to make me feel better about it because it was at the end and we'd done a lot of core work, so it made sense that it would be hard. Didn't help. I just laid on the floor with tears running down my cheeks, trying to muster up the willpower to try again. I had to task my trainer to get my towel for me so I could wipe my face off (reminds me of the story about me being little and in the car and apparently needing to throw up, but expressing that need by saying "I need a towel" over and over. although on Monday I did not use the pathetic voice my mom always uses when she tells that story...). Anyway.

Crying at the gym yesterday would have been better than what actually happened. It was the last place I wanted to be so I worked really hard - I am able to convince my addled little brain that if I work harder/faster then I'll be able to go home sooner. So not true. When I was finally allowed to leave, I get outside and it's pouring rain and I'm at the top of the stairs watching my bus go by (moped is in the shop - leaking oil). I waited around until the rain let up some and then walked the 3.5 miles home. I'm not normally so lazy that the walk would have crushed me on a regular day, but I had just finished working out and was already emotionally depleted.

It's been a rough, moody week for me and I'm looking forward to it being over. Not in small part because I have a date on Sunday with someone who seems like a really good guy...we'll see. And, for all you naysayers out there, we're going out on Sunday because he's out of town and gets back that morning.

Oh, and I have two awesome books waiting to be picked up at the library: In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan's latest book (author of The Omnivore's Dilemma) and Julie and Julia by Julie Powell (inspired by her blogging about cooking from The Art of French Cooking). I had requested both and thought I was still like 33rd in line for in Defense of Food, so them both being available today is a very nice surprise.

My Tony Bourdain Moment

Ok, so first, let me say that I know I'm lame for not posting in a long time (as Sarah frequently reminds me...). Last week I was putting in long days because of the Hawaii Conservation Conference. I would get to the office early to work on the public comments and then spend the day at the convention center. The convention center is beautiful, all open air. I got a little "scienced out" by the end of it, but overall I'm glad I got to attend the conference. I definitely learned a ton, and I met a lot of people I had only talked to on the phone before.

Last Saturday I just spent the day at the beach, but then had a mini adventure when I got hungry. Last season, Tony Bourdain came to Honolulu for his awesome show No Reservations (bummed I'm missing this season). One of the places he went to was Puka Dog, a hot dog stand that takes a big bun, puts a hole in it, sticks it on a hot metal stick like thing to toast it, squirts in a hot sauce and a fruit sauce and adds a polish sausage. I had a dog with "hot" chili pepper sauce (kind of creamy and not as hot as I wanted, so I'll have to try the "hot hot" habanero sauce) and pineapple sauce. It sounds weird, but it was soooo good! Somehow the combinations of flavors really work together. I took some pictures for you =) Unfortunately the one of the actual hot dog is kind of blurry.





The more opaque yellow sauce is the chili pepper sauce and the jelly looking one is the pineapple sauce.

I also bought new shoes this weekend; I need to give flip flops a rest at least some of the time because I'm getting some massive blisters on the bottom of my feet. I have a picture of the shoes because I'm in love with them, but I decided to spare you a picture of the blisters.