The Black Pearl

Local big news is that the Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribbean is docked across the marina from Ko Olina. They will be starting shooting the 4th movie here and on Kauai this summer. I haven't been able to see the boat from our side, but that's because I lost my glasses a few weeks ago. I am going to try to check it out tomorrow with my super zoom video camera. Or I could look some more for my glasses....okay, video camera it is. (I'm sure that my glasses are in some random purse somewhere).

We were supposed to go on our staycation in Honolulu this weekend, but Brian's back started acting up and he can barely move or even sit on the couch so we are chillaxing at home. His back started acting up on Thurs. Friday it was worse. So instead of our staycation, we have been at home. Brian was completely immobile on Friday, a bit better yesterday and today. Still not doing great though. This happens from time to time. About once per year.

This Weds we went to a new restaurant for lunch in Waianae (since we work so close to each other). Its a cafe and a farm...Kahumana Organic farm and cafe. It is in an old converted church in the Waianae valley back near the mountains. Old churches around here are small wooden structures, not with big steeples or anything. Anyway, it was so cute and so good. Most of the food is grown on the farm or on other local farms on the island. Even the cheese is locally made. There are only a few things on the menu and then there is a daily special. I had the chicken quesadilla, it came with a garden soup and side salad. The vegetables were so fresh and good. Even their salad dressing is homemade. Brian had a salad with fresh ahi (tuna) on it. It also had some local sheep feta (but I got most of that since he's lactose intolerant). All the food comes with a "citrus cooler" which is water flavored with grapefruit juice and agave nector (if you are an organic foodie and know what that is). After lunch, we picked up a box of veggies. One of the residents at Brian's work orders a box of veggies as part of CSA (community supported agriculture) for $20 a week. She was out of town and offered it to us. You get whatever they have that's in season. It was enough to fill our cooler. There was romaine lettuce, mixed greens, raddishes, white carrots, daikon (japanese radish), beets, fennel, parsely, cilantro, dill, and lilikoi (passion fruit). We split it with another co worker of Brian's. It was a dream to have actual fresh produce...meaning non wilted lettuce. We made these great salads and I made a fresh dill dressing from my salad dressing maker recipes I got from Erin a couple years ago. Then yesterday, I made a great garden soup. The fresh herbs really tasted great. We want to sign up for it too, but they aren't taking any new orders right now. So we are on a waiting list.


This morning, I went out to the marina to try to capture the Black Pearl...It was quite obvious where it was...I was looking in the wrong spot earlier this week. I took some video. I will get some photos another day. I didn't bring my camera because I thought it would be too far away for a still picture. My video has this uber zoom that can practically see California.

I really enjoyed watching the curling last night. What a great game! Finished a GREAT book.. "The Double Bind". I started it some time ago, but then got sidetracked. I started it again this week. Now that book has an ending! Not like those Asian books I read....I highly recommend the book, especially if you've read The Great Gatsby, the book ties into it. The book is a mystery type with great character development...

Birthday Parties and Hiking...

Me...with the pieces of an apron I'm making on me...this is the organized way that I construct clothes...
My Amaryllis starting to grow...

Brian and I had a terrible week at work....long story short: Brian had an assistant walk out in the middle of surgery because she didn't want the patient's tongue ring in (news flash, you're a dental assistant....you don't have a right to an opinion). I had a patient accuse me of hitting her in the face with a hammer during her extractions 2 months ago.

Flash forward....Friday we went to the lagoon, but the construction at the Disney hotel was so loud it wasn't enjoyable. We have been awaiting with much anticipation for the construction of the new stores/restaurants outside of our complex. Construction started in Jan of 08. Hawaiian construction is painfully slow if it uses local labor. They have been dry walling an ice cream shop that is the size of my college dorm room for about 4 weeks now. Anyway, just to torcher me more, they posted a menu...ice cream, sandwiches and tea shop. They will also have high tea! Of course it probably won't open for at least 3 months....There is also a taco restaurant and supposed to be a mini grocery opening....

Sat, I went to work. My schedule was double booked with one assistant...again. I was so tired. I didn't even sit down until 1:30. And didn't have time to eat. After Brian and I had a birthday party for a 5 year old to go to in Waianae. It was in "Rest. Camp", this is a military park with cabins to rent and a beach. The party was complete with bouncy castle, local food....and karyoke?! People were singing philipino love songs. I ate local food for the last time. It just makes me feel blah...the meat is always so fatty and the dishes are usually swimming in oil. We stayed until 8ish and went home...I was exhausted.

Sun, we were invited to another birthday bash. This was for our neighbor's son in law. He owns a scuba cert company and apparently has access to several boats. We went out on a boat from near Ala Moana (for those who have visited) from Kalewo Harbor (west of downtown). The boat was about 70 ft (Brian's estimate). There were about 60 of us...everyone from families with kids, to angsty teens, the philipino mafia (not really), foreign exchange students...and us. We went out of the harbor and boated around. We saw some whales. One was with a baby. You can tell because she wouldn't dive under the water, you couldn't see the baby though. There was beer, wine and more local food. We boated out to about 1 mile from Waikiki and anchored. There we swam and ate (I only ate the beef salad and brownies). The coolest part and my favorite thing in awhile was that if you went underwater you could hear the whales singing. I was hooked. I've never heard that before while swimming, but I also wasn't listening for it. We boated back and nursed our sunburns...we were out for about 5 hours. We didn't realize how much water you need while on a boat in the Hawaiian sun, so we were beat by the time we got home at 5ish.

By the way, Brian picked me up the most beautiful flowers on Sat for Valentine's day. He hand picked the arrangement with my favorite...stargazers. They smell great...reminds me of after my dance performances.

We decided that on Monday (no work for us) that we would go on a hike. We wanted to do one that wasn't that hard since we haven't hiked since the Big Island. We picked one on the North

Shore. One book said it was 4 1/2 miles, another said 6 miles. We think it was 6. It started as a great hiking through a valley, shady, cool...then all the sudden we ended up on a dirt road and a military road (boring). By the time we were done I was tired. We also stopped at a Heiau (ancient hawaiian religious site). It was really cool and had great views over Waimea Bay. Then we headed back to watch some Netflix movies and Olympics.

I have to admit I have fallen behind. I have a lot of photos and some new video. I hope to get caught up this week. Next weekend, I took off Sat and we are planning on a "Staycation". We are going to stay in Waikiki and hit some local restaurants/nightspots.

The Saints Came Marching In...

Brian at this beach this morning...we tried out lagoon 2 today.





Good game tonight! We watched the game just the two of us....this way we could wear our stretchy pants, gorge on nachos and take up the entire couch! We hit the beach at 8am for some sunshine and then came back around noon for the game. Here is a picture of my " big plate o nacho's"..this is a trademarked dish of mine involving the toasting of the chips in one of my handmade pottery dishes. Also I had a tropical beer..

Yesterday we played a little Movie Scene it and watched the movie "Perfect Getaway". Its a thriller/horror flick that takes place in Kauai. We visited a lot of the area that were in the movie on our Captain Andy boat adventure. Bryan and Emily, if you are reading this...the Captain Andy tour was a lot of fun, but do it on your last day because you will be really sore from holding on for dear life on the boat. I also made another tropical drink...the tropical teaser...dark rum, amarretto and grapefruit juice (I also added grendidine). That was pretty good.

Here's some pictures of a top I made on Friday. I had the day off and Brian went to work. I visited the post office and my favorite store....Fabric Mart (I know, I'm a loser). I found this GREAT hawaiian print in my signature color....green. Its hard to find a hawaiian print that isn't god awful. I sort of copied a shirt I liked from Maurices. I am focuses on shirring for now because it's so easy to fit and make. I'm very proud of my shirt. The skirt is my black pencil skirt I made. Pictures are forgiving...they aren't perfectly created, but I'm excited about them. My next project will be a kitchen apron. Mom may remember my last attempt at a kitchen apron...in junior high. I cut out my fabric upside down and ended up with an apron with upside down hearts all over it. I was so upset because Edie and I picked out the fabric together and everything. It even had this cute red ruffle trim on it. I wonder where that is.....
Lets see who shows up for their dental appointments tomorrow....or breaks a tooth opening beer bottles.

New Projects..

Made it through another week at work. I had my patient yesterday that spends the entire time I work on her wiggling away from me. I keep asking her if she is in pain, or wants the chair adjusted. She always says no. Then she continues to shrink and wiggle away. Its hard to work on a moving target. Plus she has the cheek and tongue disorder so I'm fighting with that...I was exhausted. I also had a patient with demensia for a follow up on an extraction I did last week. Of course his daughter never told me or put on his chart that he has this problem. He said, "I didn't have a tooth out last week". I'm thinking...do we have the wrong chart? I remember seeing him last week....Then he says, "I was wondering why my gums hurt." He has a lot of extractions that need to be done, but I'm referring him to an oral surgeon because he accidently bit me twice during the exam. He forgets to stay open when my hands are in his mouth.

I finished up a denim pencil skirt on Monday and then made one in this nice black fabric that has a bit of stretch on Weds after work. My Weds skirt only took me two hours. It was easier because I used the same design as the denim one and the fabric is stretchy enough that I didn't need to install a zipper. Here is a picture of my shirt I made last week. Brian is going to help me take pictures of my other creations tonight (he's working today).

As I was reading my Coastal Living magazine on the beach last week....sorry snow bunnies....I had an idea. They listed all these recipes for tropical drinks. I realized that I only have a tropical drink when I'm at a Roy's (which isn't so often). How can I live in Hawaii and never enjoy a tropical treat. So I decided to start my new project. I would like to try a new tropical cocktail maybe every other weekend or so. To start my new project I had to begin with a Hawaiian classic.....The Mai Tai

So I picked up all my ingredients and tried not to gasp at the price since I will be using these items again in other drinks in the future and liquor doesn't go bad. I even picked up some drink umbrellas (called party parasols on the bag). I researched several recipes. I wanted to try the original recipe and also an alternative. I hate sour mix because it gives me instant heartburn so I avoided recipes with that. I measured all the ingredients in my measuring cup with ounces and placed my umbrella. I had stopped at two stores to pick everything up and spent 10 min assembling my drink. I sat down to enjoy my tropical treat....and it tasted terrible! So I added some more grenadine and lime juice and mixed it up...now not as bad, but still not great. However, I certainly was not going to turn it down after all this work. My second one was the other recipe tasted better, but I think that was because I already had one Mai Tai. After two Mai Tais, I fell asleep on the couch at 9:30. Luckily. Brian woke me up to watch our DVR'd Criminal Minds (what an exciting life I live). I then managed to stay awake until 11pm.

Here's to hoping my tropical drink project improves in the future....Here are my two Mai Tai's...

1. Dark and gold rum, Contriou, lime juice, ammaretto, grenadine





2. Dark and gold rum, Contriou, ammaretto, grenadine, grapefruit juice, orange juice