219/365 - 8 years

Today marks 8 years that my fiancee and I have been together!

My brother brought home some Maui Mike's chicken for lunch today and it was yummy! It was very tasty and we all enjoyed it.

I went to the movies this afternoon and watched Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. It was really good and we noticed that a lot of people from The Office, Saturday Night Live and Knocked Up had roles in the movie. I was also happy that they had all the characters from the first one come back and play their roles again. Usually there are some people who don't come back for sequels but not for this movie.

218/365 - Wedding Expo/Amos Lee

Today was a fantastic day! This morning we went to the Wedding Expo at the Convention Center. I got lots of ideas and I think I may have found the wedding dress that I want. But I also found that weddings are expensive! It's going to be hard to stay in budget.
Tonight we had a dinner date before the concert. We ate at Bubba Gumps and it was delicious as usual. After that we walked around for a bit and went to Logo's Bookstore before heading to Next Door for the concert. When we got there some really nice people let us have their parking stall so we didn't have to pay the $10 fee. The line to get in was super long and once we got in it was really crowded. But it was all worth it...Amos Lee was awesome! He sounds great live and he sang just about every song I was hoping to hear.

217/365 - Beachbody

A couple of months ago, we heard about a guy from Hawaii named Dallas Carter who just won $250,000 from Million Dollar Body (Beachbody) for being healthy and losing a bunch of weight. His story is what got me motivated to start being healthier. Anyway, to make a long story short, he is actually an old friend of my boyfriend. They used to play baseball together when they were kids.
So yesterday, my boyfriend ran into Dallas and got invited to workout with them tonight! He got a team shirt and he even got one for me too!!! The picture on the right is the logo. I am excited to meet him and even more motivated to exercise!

216/365 - Guest List

Started working on my guest list for my wedding. It's a little overwhelming because there is so many people and I don't want to accidentally forget someone.
Also watching Paul Blart: Mall Cop tonight. That movie was unbe-weave-able. Hahaha, that was from the movie. But really, I enjoyed it and I would recommend Netflix-ing it. I don't think I would buy it but it was very entertaining.
I'm excited for the weekend! Wedding expo and Amos Lee!

215/365 - Curry House

We had dinner at the Curry House tonight. Their menu has changed...as you can see, it is now called Hawaii Menu Book! It's not really a book, it's just one huge thing folded in half. But it really is ridiculously huge! The pencil is on the right for reference and it's a full sized pencil. I also think their prices might have gone up a little bit and the portion size (at least for my Curry Udon) also got a little smaller.

214/365 - Panda Express

A few of my co-workers and I went out to lunch today to celebrate my birthday. I chose Panda Express, because it's fast and convenient. It was a great lunch because we got to get out of the office for the bit and eat some good food. I had fried rice/chow fun, orange chicken and beijing beef. Delicious! And my fortune in the fortune cookie said, "You are heading in the right direction." That's good news too!
After the long weekend it's a little difficult to get back into the swing of things at work and today was especially hard cause I was really busy. I got a lot of stuff done and hopefully I'll get a lot of stuff done tomorrow too.

213/365 - MacBook

I bought a new laptop today. Sort of a birthday present to myself. And as you can see from the picture, I bought an Apple. It's a MacBook! I am sitting on my bed writing this blog while listening to music on iTunes on the laptop right now. Cool! I am very happy with my purchase and now I will just have to deal with the consequences of no money till payday (which is at least soon).

212/365 - 26

I'm 26 today. For my birthday dinner, we went to the Cheesecake Factory. It's kind of a tradition with my family to eat there for my birthday. I had the Chicken Piccata which is pretty much my favorite Italian dish and they didn't disappoint me tonight! It was delicious! So good, that I forced myself to save half so I could eat it again tomorrow. Yum!

211/365 - Last day of 25

Today is the last day I will be 25 years old. And we spent the day all over the place! First we picked up Grandma to take her to a doctors appointment, then we headed to Ala Moana. For lunch we went to Romano's Macaroni Grill (because Grandma had never been there before). The picture on the right is what I ate, Chicken Scaloppine. It was delicious! I also got a new purse and wallet for my birthday from my Mom and Pops. Tonight we went to dinner with my Aunty from the Big Island and I ate a Mushroom Swiss Burger from Outback. I fell of the diet for today, but I did come home and exercise so I feel a little better. Oh yeah, and we went to Borders tonight and I bought a brand new Moleskine notebook. I have a new project starting where I write a journal entry every day for one year starting on my 26th birthday. It will be cool cause then I will have an entire year of my life documented (ex. My 26th year on this planet). :)

210/365 - Nasopure

I've been struggling with some congestion issues for the past week or so and I've been doing some online research about cures. In my research I've found that nasal irrigation seems to be the best thing that everyone is recommending with no real side effects. Today, after work, we went over to Down to Earth to see if they carried any Neti Pots (which is what you use). We found one but it was $20 and it didn't come with the non-iodized salt packets to mix in. Luckily right next to it was this other similar product called Nasopure. It was cheaper and came in a trial pack with the little saline packets I needed so I picked that up instead.
I tried it out tonight and it works!!! I feel better and my breathing seems better too. It was a little bit uncomfortable at first but I quickly got used to it. I strongly recommend you check out their website at www.nasopure.com to see if this could work for you!

209/365 - Nonogram

I just found this new application for my iPhone called PicGrid. It's actually called a nonogram puzzle. You use logic to color in the squares and the squares you color turn out to be a picture. It's also called Picross on the Nintendo DS. But anyway, these puzzles are totally addicting. I first learned about them when we were in Japan. I wanted to find a puzzle book to do on the train and came across this. At first I was discouraged because the instructions were in Japanese but after I figured it out, I was hooked. If you look at the puzzle on the right, it's a 5x5 grid and you have to color in based on the numbers going vertically or horizontally. If there are numbers together (i.e. row 2: 1 1 1) it means that there are spaces (they don't tell you how many) in between the number of filled squares (in this example three blocks filled, not next to each other). It's a little confusing at first, so click here for a wikipedia article that may help. Please also see this other picture of this puzzle solved (don't mind the difference in colors, the game changes colors when you open it at different times).

208/365 - Concert Tickets!!!

They're here! They're here! The concert tickets are here! It's official, the tickets are here and we are going to see Amos Lee on May 30th. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, please refer back to Day 201 for more information.
My cold seems to be getting better, but now I'm just all stuffy in the sinuses and congested. I have to find some medicine to get un-stuffy. I'm realizing how much I take my good health for granted when I have it. But it really is something to be thankful for. Just remember that the next time you think you have nothing to be thankful for. :)

207/365 - EA Sports Active

We headed out to Best Buy tonight to check out some car alarms for my fiancee (hehe) and we saw a sales associate trying out the demo for EA Sports Active. It just came out today and it's like your own personal trainer that uses the Wii to help you get fit. So of course I picked one up, it was $60 but I got a $10 Best Buy gift card for buying it ( I don't know why). After I got home and tried it, I realized it's a lot harder then it looks, but this will be a good supplement to the Power 90 I'm already doing. A new weight loss competition has started at work so I HAVE TO WIN! It cost $50 to buy in so I'm planning in kicking it up a notch. My new work out schedule is going to be EA Active in the morning before work and Power 90 in the afternoon after work. We'll see how it goes.

206/365 - Sorbet

Sorry for the late blog from yesterday. I didn't forget, our internet was down last night so I couldn't post. But yesterday I came home early from work because I wasn't feeling well. I ended up sleeping all afternoon and woke up for dinner and slept all through the night. Which was good, because I'm feeling almost back to 100% today.
Yesterday, Mom and Pops went to Costco for some grocery shopping and brought home some Island Way Sorbet (because there was a coupon for it) and it turned out to be totally delicious! You can't really see it on the wrapper, but these sorbets come in real fruit cups. I had the lemon and it came in half a lemon; Mom and Dad had pineapple and coconut and....you guessed it, it came in a pineapple and coconut. Cool!

205/365 - Sore Throat

Woke up with a sore throat this morning that got progressively worse as the day went on. Feelin' kinda lousy now, but trying to get better quickly cause I gotta go work tomorrow. My fiancee (insert smiley face), picked up some medicine for me. He got me throat spray and lozenges. The spray was a little scary because I haven't really used that type before. After I sprayed my throat I got scared because it got numb so quickly. I thought my throat was closing up and that I wasn't going to be able to breathe. But it was okay and it worked pretty good.

204/365 - Camp Timberline

I went up to Camp Timberline today as a part of the Outstanding Keiki event that my company puts together. So that helped with #3 of my New Year's Resolutions. I volunteered for a total of 11 hours today! It was a lot of fun interacting with the kids and watching them interact with each other. I'm all sunburned now but it was worth it.

203/365 - Mother's Day Part 3

We took my Mom out for her Mother's Day dinner tonight at Kunio's in Waikele. It was a little late but since we spent Mother's Day weekend with both sides of the family, we needed to take my Mom out to a special dinner and tonight was the most convenient.
I ate the Ten Don which is shrimp and vegetable tempura over rice. It was very delicious and it came in a cute little box. The portions were very generous so I think everyone was satisfied. And they also have a big sushi menu too!

202/365 - Kitchen Plants Gone Wild

So a few days ago I had taken a picture of these plants. Then this morning when I was looking at them, I was amazed to see that the little clover plant crew like 5 inches in just a few days! And even the oregano plant looks a little fuller. Wow!
Also amazing, I am at 10lbs. lost so far! Woo hoo!
I worked on my budget a little tonight and realized how much I have to start watching where I spend my money. Now that I'm moving into a new season of my life, priorities are changing so I need to change too.

201/365 - Amos Lee

Amos Lee is coming to Hawaii! We will be going to his concert on Saturday, May 30th and we are both really excited! We went to Best Buy tonight to pick up his two newest albums to get ready and we also picked up Anuhea's album (she's opening for him). I am ashamed to admit we only owned his first album, but it is a really good album. In case you don't know who Amos Lee is he sings the AT&T song "Sweet Pea" for their commercial. It's the commercial where the Dad is going on a business trip and the little girl gives him her monkey stuffed animal and he takes pictures of it everywhere with his camera phone and sends it to her. Click here for the link.
Another popular song he sings is Colors. Check him out!

200/365 - Shredded Shoyu Chicken

We had some delicious shredded shoyu chicken for dinner tonight. Mom prepared it a new way and it tasted like it was marinating in sauce for a long time before it was cooked, even though I don't think it was.
I'm up to level 3-4 on my exercise DVD's now and because it's longer, I decided to try and exercise in the afternoon on Tuesday and Thursday. Today was my first day and I realized that I have way less energy in the afternoon then I do first thing in the morning. I guess I will have to figure out a new plan.

199/365 - Engaged

Yes, it's true...I'm engaged! Woo hoo! It's been eight long years but we are finally engaged. :) There is so much to do now!

198/365 - Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! We had Mother's Day dinner with my Dad's side of the family at Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin over at the Beachwalk in Waikiki. The food was pretty good, but I think I should have ordered a leaner cut of katsu cause mine was a little too fatty for my tastes. We also had some calamari with cream cheese fried thingys which were really yummy! I think I will have to try this place again to really get a good taste of the food, but the sauce came with sesame seeds that you grind yourself and add the sauce to it and it was very very good.

197/365 - Cafe Imperial

We had Mother's Day Dinner with my Mom's side of the family at Cafe Imperial tonight. Cafe Imperial is at 725 Kapiolani Blvd. Downtown. When we got there there were just 3 people eating dinner at a table and the whole time we were there only two other people came in so it wasn't busy at all which was good because it's a really small restaurant. But don't let that fool you, they have some ono tonkatsu! I actually order the hirekatsu which is a more tender cut of tonkatsu and it was really really good. I wanted to take a picture, but it looked so yummy that I forgot and by the time I remembered, I only had one piece left! The prices were pretty reasonable and again the food was delicious, so I recommend this place with two thumbs up!

196/365 - Geocaching

We found a new hobby! It's called geocaching and all you need is a GPS or an iPhone 3G if you have one. It's like a real live treasure hunt where you find things all over the world! If you would like more information, go to www.geocaching.com. Anyway, we found our very first geocache today and it was very exciting and fun. We might go hunting some more tomorrow. Stay tuned...

195/365 - Happy Odd Day!

Today is Odd Day. Named because it is only one of three times this century where the date is consecutive odd numbers, 5-7-9. Interesting...
Anyway, I didn't have any pictures to take today so I ended up taking one of some plants in our kitchen. We have oregano on the left and four leaf clovers on the right. For some strange reason, plants seem to grow really well in our kitchen, but once they go outside they die. Strangely, we only have a green thumb on plants growing in the house. Hmm....how you figa?

194/365 - DJ setup

So, the DJ setup is back in the room. But now there is just one turn table instead of two, a midi controller and a laptop. I'm not really sure how they work but it looks cool.
Small group tonight was at Yogurtland. It was kinda fun because we got to have yogurt instead of drinks at Starbucks. The junk part was that it was kinda noisy with people coming and going. But it was a nice change for this week.

193/365 - OTW on CW online

I took this yesterday, but I liked it a lot so I thought I would use it today (and I did watch some One Tree Hill tonight so it counds). Anyway, the CW actually has full episodes of this season of One Tree Hill online. Isn't that great! A couple weeks ago the DVR was broken (for just one day) and I missed my OTH. But it was all good cause I could just watch it online. It made me happy that the CW was so thoughtful that they look out for the fans. :)
Oh yeah, I also read that One Tree Hill has been approved for another season! Hooray!

192/365 - Happy Star Wars Day!

May 4th is Star Wars Day. May the 4th be with you! Hahaha... In honor of Star Wars Day, May 4th, we had a four part salad for dinner. Okay, I was just joking we didn't really have it for Star Wars Day, it was just a coincidence that my Mom made this beautiful four part salad for dinner. It has eggs, carrots, bell pepper and turkey bacon. Mmm! And it was totally delicious too! We also had some fish to go with it. Sadly, my allergies have been acting up for the past couple of days so I can't really taste much of anything, it comes and it goes. Hopefully when the trade winds come back and clear away the vog I will get better.

191/365 - 100% Orange Juice

I like to drink 100% Orange Juice. When I was younger, I hated juice with pulp, my brother and I used to argue because he liked it and I didn't. But now that I'm older I don't mind it so much so we buy the one with pulp. Another thing about orange juice is that it is so expensive!!! One thing of orange juice is like $7 at the store! Ridiculous! I wonder if this is one of those things were it's just really expensive in Hawaii but in the mainland it's cheap. Hmm...I wonder.

190/365 - BBQ

We barbecued for dinner tonight. We had steak, shrimp, hot dogs (turkey) and some vegetables. It turned out pretty good for our first time barbecuing. We even roasted some marshmallows after and made some s'mores (but without the chocolate) with cinnamon graham crackers. That was very delicious! Stitch and Poki stayed in the garage with us and just walked around. It's nice to be able to let them go out there once in a while.

189/365 - Bell Peppers and Celery

This was just part of our dinner tonight. We took a bunch of vegetables that we had in the fridge and cooked it up. So we had: bell peppers, celery, carrots, lettuce, asparagus, Chinese sugar peas, snap peas and broccoli. Mmm! And we also grilled up some steaks as a topper to go with it.
My sinuses are still giving me problems. The feel stuck and my face hurts. :( I think I will take some medicine and go to sleep early tonight.