Project 365 - Day 68 - Bye bye 2008!

It is the last day of the year! We had half day at work so I came home around 12:30ish. I had to go to the bank so we ate out for the last time of 2008 at Mililani Restaurant. I haven't been there in a while, but I had my usual, Portugese Fried Rice. It was yummy!
Tonight my "nephew" Kuma came over for New Year's Eve dinner. As you can see from the right, all three "cousins" ate dinner nicely together. :) Hahaha, it's probably cause we put shredded cheese in their food today.
We sang a LOT of karaoke tonight! Well, actually I sang a lot of karaoke tonight. Mostly because I'm just getting over my cold, so I think I have the sick sexy voice (like Phoebe from Friends). But we also like to sing karaoke on New Years Eve because everyone is up late anyway and making plenty noise so it's not so shame.
2008 was a pretty great year. There were a lot of ups, but also a lot of downs which helped me to grow as a person and appreciate the ups a lot more.
Highlights of 2008: Dad and Mom coming to Church (YAY!); Fun times with Dad and Mom after church; Learning that credit cards are evil (this was actually a bad thing, not a highlight, but it helped me to learn a lot more about my limitations); the driving range with Canaan and Pops; Japan Trip and Family Reunion.
Anyway, it's about one hour to go until 2009 so, I'm going to go outside and maybe play some fireworks.

Project 365 - Day 67 - Sleepy Puppy

I woke up in the middle of the night to get some water and this is how Poki was sleeping. It was so cute I had to take a picture!
I am still a little sick today, but feeling better than I was yesterday. I can't believe that it is the day before the last day of the year. 2008 just flew by so fast!

Project 365 - Day 66 - Sick

I'm still sick today. This is my sick table. It has juice, water and the tv remotes. Everything you need when you are sick! I have the chills so as you can see I have my sweats in the background.
I think I have the flu, although it could be a bad cold so I'm going to sleep now.

Project 365 - Day 65 - GBC

Church this morning was awesome! Trey George (16 year old swimmer) gave his testimony about getting back into the pool, 2 years after open heart surgery. And Ben Vegas and Maila Gibson performed a couple of songs. It was an amazing service!
I feel like I'm getting sick, so this will be kinda short so I can get to bed.

Project 365 - Day 64 - Peach Jello

I made some peach jello this afternoon, but it was taking too long to chill so I put it in the freezer. As you can see, I left it in there a little too long. It looks like it's covered in mold, but it actually started freezing around the edges. By the way, the peach jello didn't really taste that great. The frozen parts were actually really yummy, but I didn't care for the flavor.
Since the power didn't come on till around noon, our plans for the day got pushed back. But I did have time to get a replacement insurance card and get my safety check done. It feels good now that that is taken care of.

Project 365 - Day 63 - Blackout

This picture, taken just outside my house, illustrates the reason I was unable to post last night. We had no power from about 6:45 last night, till about noon today. I was actually at Ala Moana when the power went out. We just finished eating dinner at Taiyo Ramen (near Ala Moana) and was at Barnes & Noble browsing around when the power went out. It was kinda junk cause I was excited to catch some after Christmas sales and we found really good parking. So we ended up leaving without having bought anything.

Project 365 - Day 62 - Mele Kalikimaka!

Mele Kalikimaka! It's Christmas Day! This morning we opened presents and I got lots of wonderful gifts! For example, if you look at the picture to the left, I got a brand new set of Wilson Ladies' Golf Clubs! Yay! I even have matching golf balls, towel and the golf I bought a few weeks ago.
After opening presents this morning, we had brunch at Gordon Biersch. Then we went to the graveyards to leave some flowers. We had dinner at my Aunties house were we played bingo and the "kids" decorated gingerbread cookies.
It was a wonderful day! I am so blessed and I praise the Lord for all of the great people in my life!

Project 365 - Day 61 - Twas the night before Christmas

It's Christmas Eve! Since we don't do the whole Christmas tree thingy, our presents are on a table in front of our TV area. Today was a half day at work so I spent some of my time off delivering presents. It was nice to be able to spend a little time catching up with some friends on Christmas Eve.
Tonight I helped to make some food for our Christmas dinner tomorrow night. I made spinach rolls...mmm...I can't wait till tomorrow to eat some good food!

Project 365 - Day 60 - Snowman's Poop

I got this baggie of marshmallow at work today. Enclosed was this message, "You've been bad and here's the scoop....All you get this Christmas is Snowman's Poop!" Hahaha. I thought that was really cute!
Today was our office Christmas Luncheon. We had Korean food. Tonight was my small group Christmas Dinner. We went to Outback Steak House. It was a great day of food and fellowship.

Project 365 - Day 59 - Taco Del Mar

This is a wet Mondo Burrito from Taco Del Mar. For dinner, we had 2 of these Mondo burrito's, two drinks and two sides of chips and salsa and we only had to pay $0.60! How did we do it? Well first, we won a free one a little while ago for dropping a business card in the fish bowl. Then, we saved up all of our frequent diner punch cards from a long time ago. Isn't that a great deal! It's a lot of food and very very yummy!
So, it's a short week this week because we are off half day for Christmas Eve and a full day on Christmas. And tomorrow we have our office Christmas luncheon. Hooray!

Project 365 - Day 58 - New Tires

Got new tires for my car today. It costed me just over $900! Sheesh! So expensive! But it's a necessity. I don't want to be stranded on the road, and these tires came with a good warranty.
We went to the early service for church then dropped off my car at Sears for the tires. While we waited, we went to see Twilight again. It was even better the second time. Then did a little window shopping before going grocery shopping.
My Mom and I made cookies and some food for a party tomorrow. Lots of cooking and lots of standing on our feet. After we were done, our feet were so sore!

Project 365 - Day 57 - Saturday before Christmas

This is what our Christmas wrapping table looks like. Lucky for me, Mom likes to wrap so I didn't have to wrap any presents! Yes!
Today, I cleaned the bathroom (scrubbed the sink and bath tub) and went to the library. I had to return books and DVD's and also pick up a couple of books that I reserved online from other libraries.
I also took a really long nap this afternoon (about 4 hours). I don't take naps on the weekdays so one day in the weekend, I catch up on my sleep.
I like to nap. =)

Project 365 - Day 56 - What's that?

Today was a pretty average day. So, it took me till 10:45PM tonight to even take a picture. Can you guess what it is?
It was a long day at work today, probably because it's Friday and because it's so close to Christmas and some time off of work.
Tonight, we had spaghetti for dinner and I just relaxed and finished reading my book. I read Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers, which is a story based on a story from the bible about a man who falls in love with a prostitute. I know it sounds a little strange, but it was a great story about God and love.
So did you guess what the picture is??? It's multi-colored bendy straws. Pretty neat huh!

Project 365 - Day 55 - Garlic Shrimp

So, I was sent to Foodland to buy carrot and potato for our hamburger curry dinner tonight. I came back with that plus: pasteles, garlic, ginger, apples, kim chee imitation crab and shrimp. :) You should never shop when you are hungry.
I made some garlic shrimp pupu's to go with dinner. It was my first time making it but I think it came out pretty good. We also watched Step Brothers and Horton Hears a Who tonight. Well, I actually watched Horton by myself because one by one everyone left me! It was actually a good story with a good message behind it. It was really funny, but a little silly at times.
One week until Christmas!

Project 365 - Day 54 - Blazin' Steaks

This is the steak and shrimp plate ($8.00) from Blazin' Steaks. There was actually a little more steak and a little more salad, but I took a couple bites and then realized I should take a picture of it. Dad got out of the hospital tonight. Hooray! Praise the Lord! We will continue to pray for a complete recovery.

Project 365 - Day 53 - Hospital, Work and Shige's

Dad had some chest pains last night so we took him to the emergency room. They were pretty sure it wasn't a heart attack, but they still don't know exactly what's wrong, so he stayed overnight last night and he will be staying overnight tonight. Hopefully we can get some answers tomorrow.
I had to work early this morning so it was a long day. We visited Dad tonight and ate dinner at Shige's afterwards. Here's a picture of what I ate.

Project 365 - Day 52 - Clutter.

This is my desk. It is like my mind. Cluttered and full of important and useless stuff. This is about as messy as the desk gets before it gets totally cleaned off and is a usable work space. Until it gets messy again.
As an example of my cluttered mind, today I was reading about musicians and the contract riders that they have which is where they ask for all kinds of stuff in order for them to perform. Anyway, I was thinking about it on my drive home, if I were a rock star, what would I have on my rider?

• 1 package David Sunflower Seeds
• 6 pack of canned 12oz. Pepsi, chilled on ice
• 1 bag each, Funyuns, Sun Chips, Poore Brothers Salt & Vinegar Chips
• Fruit Basket
• Vegetable Platter with Ranch Dip

Oh and if you have no idea what I'm talking about you can go to The Smoking Gun and they have all the famous musicians' riders. Click your favorite and see what they requested.

Project 365 - Day 51 - Brows

Meet Miso. Miso is the dog at Kiss 'n Makeup where I get my eyebrows done.
I got my eyebrows and "mustache" waxed today. It's kinda painful, but I feel so much better once it's done. Very clean and put together.
We also did some shopping at Ala Moana. Well, not so much me because I already finished my shopping, but it's still fun to walk around. Although Ala Moana was extremely crowded this afternoon which made it not very fun to window shop.
Oh yeah, and today is Stitch's birthday, so Happy Birthday Stitch!

Project 365 - Day 50 - Hula

Today we went to the Town Center in the morning because my co-workers daughter had a hula performance. Since she sent us an email to let us know about it, I thought it would be nice if we went. It was really cute! The little hula girls were adorable!
We had lunch (and dinner tonight) at Blazin' Steaks. They have steak plates for just $6.00 and steak and shrimp plates for $8.00! And they cut up the steak and cook it with a good seasoning so it's easy to eat and tasty! I highly recommend them. So far, I only know of two of their locations, Mililani Town Center and Kapolei.

Project 365 - Day 49 - Almanac

I finished my Christmas Shopping tonight! Yes! Now all I have to do is wrap all of the presents. Ick! As a treat to myself for finishing my shopping, I bought myself a 2009 World Almanac or what I like to call "The Internet in a Book". I didn't realize how much information is in an almanac. You can find all kinds of interesting stuff in there! For example, famous people's real names, info. on the Presidents and all kinds of sports information. Most of the stuff is probably useless information, bu it's really neat to know.
I also wanted to get an almanac because a lot of people with Hawaii ties accomplished things this year. Like Barack Obama, Bryan Clay and Shane Victorino. It's kind of fun to expand my knowledge and get to know things about other states and other countries.

Project 365 - Day 48 - Ame, Ame....

Like the title of my blog says, today was nothing but rain, rain. The picture above was in Mapunapuna today! Over in Kapolei, it wasn't quite so bad, but still, when it rains in Kapolei you know that somethings a little off. It was really scary driving to work this morning. I've never had to drive in rain all the way to work. And some parts of the freeway were flooded so I had to drive extra careful.
I know I was supposed to use my running shoes today, but it really was not an option. I will try to do some light exercises before I go to bed, but I totally failed in the start of the exercising. We also watched Martian Child tonight. It is with John Cusack and Amanda Peet. It was interesting...

Project 365 - Day 47 - Preparing to exercise

These are my Mizuno Alchemy running shoes. I got them off the shelf in our garage tonight to prepare for exercising tomorrow. You see, when you haven't used them in 3 months, they need to be dusted and checked for bugs. And, I'm taking things one step at a time (no pun intended) by getting the shoes out first and exercising tomorrow. Anyway, after reading all about the Honolulu Marathon coming up on Sunday, I felt a little guilty for not exercising. So I will attempt to exercise tomorrow and hopefully blog about it tomorrow night.

Project 365 - Day 46 - Brew Moon

We had Mom's birthday dinner tonight at Brew Moon at Ward Center. I had a mojito to drink (which wasn't very good) and Picata Style Lemon Chicken for dinner. It was actually not too bad, but I felt like it was missing something. For appetizers we had a sampler platter which had excellent calamari and chicken! Mmm...I totally recommend it! I think it was called the South Sea platter but I'm not really sure, but just get the one with ribs, calamari and chicken.
I had a luncheon today at the Hale Koa. It was a buffet and it was really yummy! Although it could be because I was really hungry at lunch time.

Project 365 - Day 45 - Ala Moana

Tonight, we ate dinner at Island's Burgers at Ala Moana Center before we hit the mall to do some Christmas shopping. I had the Hula Burger (a mushroom and swiss cheese burger). I also finished the majority of my shopping tonight! Yay! We also stopped for a bit and listened to the Kaiser Band play some Christmas music. It brought back a lot of memories of when I used to have to do the same thing. They were really good, especially on their last song, which was a melody of a bunch of Christmas songs.

Project 365 - Day 44 - Lazy.

I was extremely lazy today. I pretty much just ate, slept, read and went to the driving range for a bit. Now that it's the end of the day, I kind of regret just lounging around doing nothing all day. Let this be a lesson for the future.

Project 365 - Day 43 - Harry Potter

Today was a long day. We went to Chuck E. Cheese, Pearlridge and had dinner with our relatives before they go home to Japan.
The book on the right is what I bought yesterday at Borders. It was actually a good deal, because I got 40% off and had $5.00 in Borders Bucks so I only ended up having to pay a little more than $2.00! But then I ended up donating a book to charity so I spend $8.00. Still a very good deal!
Dinner tonight was awesome! We had all kinds of food, but I thought the shrimp was the best!

Project 365 - Day 42 - Jelly's

Have I ever mentioned that I love to read??? In case you haven't noticed...I love to read! Although my reading habit was costing me quite a bit of money, I have adjusted well to reading on a budget.
Tonight, we made a special trip to Borders so I could pick up the new J.K. Rowling book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard. I lost track of time and forgot to reserve it, so when I realized this morning that it came out, I went online to borders.com and checked to see which stores still had the book. I ended up reserving my copy online and going down there to pick it up. According to the website, half of the Borders on the island were out of stock!
Also, since we didn't want to sit in too much traffic coming home, we stopped by Jelly's in Aiea. As far as I know, they are the only place that sells used books on the island. I picked up four books that I remember reading as a kid and it was only $8.00! The place is a little dusty and you have to search a bit to find some books (as you can see from the picture), but it's a pretty neat place.

Project 365 - Day 41 - East Side

Today we spent the day taking our relatives around on the East side of the Island. We started off the day with some breakfast (which was actually an early lunch) at McDonald's in Kahala Mall. Then we headed out to the Halona Blow Hole and Sea Life Park. We got there just in time to catch the Dolphin Show. The first dolphin picture is actually three dolphins all jumping at once. The second picture is the only "Wholfin" in existence on the whole planet! Sea Life Park didn't plan for it to happen, but it's half whale and half dolphin. Cool! Then we stopped at the Hawaii Memorial Cemetery and the Pali Lookout. To finish up the night, we went to play some games and have some drinks at Dave & Busters and dinner at Bucca di Beppo's. It was an awesome day!

Project 365 - Day 40 - Cleanin' the Car

We have some relatives visiting from Japan and we are taking them around tomorrow. So, this afternoon, after work, we cleaned my car. Yes, I own a Honda Element, the neatest car on the road. It has suicide doors on both sides and is extremely roomy as you can see from the picture. Tomorrow's post should be more interesting because we will be driving to parts of the island I don't normally drive to. So tune in tomorrow night for an update on our exciting day!

Project 365 - Day 39 - Food Poisoned?

Feelin' a little sick tonight. I think it might be food poisoning but not really cause it's not that bad. Just a bit of upset stomach and not really feeling like eating too much. I did have some juice tonight so I won't be dehydrated though.
Went to the library again this afternoon to return a book that was badly mangled in the inside when I got it. I had to take it back to where I borrowed it (which is different from the one we went to yesterday) so I could explain it to them and not get charged for the damages.

Project 365 - Day 37 - Library Books

We went to the public library this afternoon to return and borrow more books. We also rented some movies. I am getting more used to visiting the library and actually returning my books on time. :) Hahaha...I think that's the trick...returning the books on time so that you don't have to pay a late fee.
Also, since it's the beginning of the month, I'm starting a new thing where I watch what I eat and log it down. We'll see how this goes.

Project 365 - Day 36 - Shopping

After church today we went to Pearlridge to do some holiday shopping. I picked up two more gifts and was very proud that I didn't buy anything for myself! I was actually surprised because the mall wasn't really busy at all. I am trying hard this year to not wait till the last minute to finish my shopping.
Oh yeah, I forgot, I did get one thing for myself, but it was free. See picture below.

Project 365 - Day 35 - Grandma's B-Day

Tonight we had dinner at Tanaka of Tokyo's in Ala Moana for Grandma's birthday. I meant to take a picture but it was so interesting during dinner and I got distracted after dinner so I missed the opportunity. If you have never eaten there, it is a pretty neat experience. They cook your food in front of you and put on a great show doing it.
Today we took the boys to the groomers. They are short haired dogs, but we like to take them a few times a year to get their nails clipped, anal glands done and a nice bath. The picture on the left is Stitch and Poki (in that order). They were begging for treats. Poki moved at the last minute but it's the best picture we got.

Project 365 - Day 34 - Black Friday

Today was Black Friday and yes I did have to work. In case you are unfamiliar with the meaning of Black Friday, it is the official start of the holiday shopping season and the day that there are crazy sales, usually starting at midnight. Black Friday is said to be the first day of the year that retailers are "in the black" when it comes to their books.
So, I saw a good deal on some women's golf clubs at Sports Authority so we decided to go check it out. I was still a little hesitant to buy, so we ate dinner, walked around and bought a few presents. After shopping around, the golf clubs that I originally wanted at Sports Authority were gone! So we walked around some more...and I found that the most expensive clubs at Sports Authority were actually way cheaper at KMart and WalMart! Sheesh, I almost got ripped off! In any case, I curbed my consumer appetite by purchasing a very nifty golf glove instead. Hooray for delayed gratification!

Project 365 - Day 33 - Thanksgiving Day

Happy Thanksgiving! Today was a great day. We started off going to the movies and watching Twilight. I haven't been to the movies in a long time so it was very fun. Plus, I thought the movie was great! I didn't have any expectations going in so I wasn't at all disappointed.
We had Thanksgiving dinner at my Aunty's house. I took a picture of just some of the food we had. It was all really good and I had a blast playing with my cousin's almost 2 year old son. He is so smart for his age! And I'm not just saying that. He can speak in sentences and answer all kinds of questions.
We also got to play a little Rock Band and watch some Jon and Kate plus 8, so all in all it was a great day!

Project 365 - Day 32 - Thanksgiving Eve

It is Thanksgiving Eve and for once, the prep work was all done by 7:00PM! It's a miracle! The picture above is the pumpkin crunch that I made for dessert tomorrow night. I will try to take a picture of all the food tomorrow.
I am very excited for all the good food and good company tomorrow but it's really junk that I have to work on Friday. :( It's not like I would be at the mall shopping or anything but just having to wake up early the next morning is pretty hard.

Project 365 - Day 31 - Defrost the Turkey

In two days, Thanksgiving will be here! We are currently defrosting a 12lb. turkey in our fridge. Tomorrow afternoon, the turkey will go in the imu to cook and we will take it out on Thursday morning, just in time for Thanksgiving dinner. Also tomorrow, we will have to start making our food for dinner on Thursday. I have no idea what we will be making, but you can be sure that I will be in the kitchen all night tomorrow.
I am really grossed out that there is a raw turkey in the fridge, but I guess it has to defrost somewhere. I just have this thing about raw and undercooked food. Which is actually kind of funny because I was just eating sushi for dinner yesterday.

Project 365 - Day 30 - Sushi

We went out to run errands with a friend tonight and stopped for dinner at Kuru Kuru Sushi. I must say, I think that for the price, they have the best sushi on the island. It's not very expensive and they have a pretty big menu with lots of good food. The wait can be long, but tonight we got there around 6:30 and there was hardly any wait at all.
So, if you are in the Pearlridge area, you should check it out!
My favorites: Spicy Tuna, Shrimp Fry, Tempura Bowl, Ingen.

Project 365 - Day 29 - Sewing

The picture on the right is Stitch. Today I was trying to sew my pants and Stitch was so interested! He stuck his nose right up to the machine and watched me the whole time. It's really funny because Stitch loves to watch us sew and do crafts and Poki is always poking us on our arm or leg with his nose. They really do live up to their names!

Project 365 - Day 28 - Grandma's Day Out

Today we took Grandma out to run some errands. We had to visit three different doctors offices first, then went to Ala Moana. The first doctors office had a really neat wall calendar. It was made out of yarn and plastic canvas. At first I thought that it was not a very good thing because after one month it would be thrown away. But upon closer inspection, I saw that the pieces were movable! The month and year at the top were separated, Nov 20 08. So I think that there are just two of every number and you can move the pieces around and it will be an everlasting calendar! Anyway, the nurse noticed that I took a picture of it and she told me that a man had made it for them! I was amazed!
Anyway, after all the doctors office visits, we went to Ala Moana and walked around and did a little shopping. Shirokiya had a lot of interesting food so we spent a lot of time in there just looking around and taking in all the different sights. All in all it was a great day with Grandma.

Project 365 - Day 27 - Movie Night

Tonight was movie night. We cooked up some Hurricane Popcorn and watched Get Smart. If you don't know, Hurricane Popcorn is buttery popcorn with mochi crunch and nori. Our popcorn didn't have too much nori so we added more. It was really good! Almost just like the movie theatres.
We watched Get Smart, which stars Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway and also has lots of other famous people. I think it was one of the better movies I've seen in a while. Although I don't care too much for action films, this one kept me laughing so it was entertaining.
By the way, the Tylenol worked very well last night. I think it was the first time I've slept through the entire night in months!

Project 365 - Day 26 - Sinus Pain

Today was a long day at work because I had to drive in traffic to a meeting, sit in an interview and come back to my office to work on a project. And to make matters worse, I had some sinus issues today. This whole sinus thing all started about a year ago. I was on a plane and on our descent into our destination, my face just felt like it was going to explode! It was really sore and really scary. Anyway, ever since then I've had off and on sinus pressure, mostly in my face, by my cheekbones. It's especially worse on plane rides, but the past few weeks have been bad too.
So tonight, I headed down to my local Wal-Mart to see if they had anything over the counter to help. To my surprise, there are TONS of products to help with sinuses. After a lot of label reading and comparing, I chose Tylenol because the brand sounded familiar and it wasn't as expensive as everything else. It also helps nasal congestion and runny nose which is good because I'm also sniffling and snorting through the night. I just took a couple of the night pills and we will see how it goes.

Project 365 - Day 25 - Dinner in the dark

Tonight, we ate out for dinner because it was a friend's birthday. Just looking at the picture above can you guess where we went for dinner??? If you guessed Sizzler you are right! Yes, we went to Sizzler at Pearlridge. I had their special where you could choose one main course (shrimp, bacon wrapped fillet or malibu chicken) and you got a drink and salad bar for $15.95. I got the bacon wrapped fillet with a baked potato. Here is a picture so you can see what I ate. Hahaha...yes, the steak is on the left. Oh my goodness, it was so tiny. But what can you expect for just $15.95 plus salad bar!
I titled this blog dinner in the dark because just when I came back from getting ice cream at the salad bar, the power went out! So we had to eat the rest of our meal in the dark. I must say though, the staff was excellent! They handed out candles, made sure everyone was okay and shouted announcements on the outage. I guess they had a gas stove in the back because the people who had already ordered still got their food. It was very interesting for me cause I've never been in a restaurant when the power went out before.

Project 365 - Day 24 - Kiwi

This is a kiwi, my favorite fruit. I sliced up a couple kiwi's for dessert tonight, but I think they weren't ripe yet cause they were a lot more sour than they usually are. Kiwi's are very high in Vitamin C which is good because I think I feel the beginnings of a cold coming on.
These past few days have been really rainy and cold. It's starting to feel more and more like Christmas. Although it might also be because Perry and Price are only playing Christmas music now on their morning show. I really do like Christmas music, but if I hear Jingle Bell Rock one more time.... Sheesh! I never knew there were so many different varieties of that song! It also doesn't help that my radio at work only picks up KSSK so I don't have much of a choice.