Second of 2008

See

Now, to share a few material items I've recently acquired...

Last weekend I made a jaunt down to Tukwila (which is actually quite close to Beacon Hill) to use a gift card at Best Buy I received for my birthday. I knew I wanted a new shaver (I replace/upgrade about every two years). I'd been a Norelco man all my life, but the New Year's energy took hold and I decided to go with this instead:



The tiki lamp and hula girl soap dispenser are old hats, but the Braun 360 is my favorite new toy! It comes with a self-cleaning station so between each shave the head goes into a slot which activates a cleaning cartridge. Thus, your skin is less susceptible to blemishes! It's an awesome shaver all around - simply the best shave I've ever had. Sorry Norelco, but I've gone Braun.

Also a birthday present, this Phillips digital picture frame came via my future sister-in-law (an employee at said company).



The blurriness has to do with my digital camera about to blow (hopefully soon I'll be reviewing a new one of those). In real life, the images are crystal clear and there are different settings for how you want to view. You can just load pictures into a USB connector and use either an AC cord or battery to power up the show. We haven't played around with it too much, but have since received yet another one (for Christmas). Excited about this new technology, as I'm extraordinarily sluggish when it comes to organizing old pictures into photo albums.

Eat

No trip to Tukwila would be complete without dining at a chain restaurant so we opted to try out a fairly new Bahama Breeze in the parking lot of Southcenter Mall.



The place is deceptively large and decorated in lots of wicker and Island-inspired touches, with a bent toward Caribbean. We had to wait for our table (popular place at 1pm on a Sunday) so we had a cocktail in the bar. I had a mojito that was very good and Dan had a pina colada which he also found favorable. I was pretty ravished and maybe that had something to do with it, but I really give the food 4 palm trees.

I had the "Breeze Wood-Grilled Chicken Breast Moist and tender with citrus butter sauce, fresh broccoli and cinnamon mashed sweet potatoes." The portions were reasonable, unlike most chain restaurants where your meal makes a suspicious dent in the table. I was satiated, but could have had a bit more and that's supposed to be the perfect way to eat. The sweet potatoes were yum yum!

Also, our server was very sweet and friendly and even walked me to the bathroom rather than just point. Not that I plan on making Tukwila a common destination, but this is a place I'll definitely return to when in the parking lot.

Drink

Last month we had a small get-together with family and our friends who are married with a kid. We wanted to use our punch bowl so went searching for a festive drink. Thanks to Better Homes and Gardens, we found "Crimson Sippers."



Though the color seemed more purple to me than crimson, the beverage was a big hit and easy to make:

Ingredients:
2 pints pomegranate juice
1.5 cups sugar
12 fresh sage leaves, lightly crushed
2 2x1/2-inch strips lemon peel
1 cup lemon juice
1 750 ml. bottle dry (brut) sparkling wine or club soda, chilled

We went with the alcoholic version and boy did these little sippers go down smooth!

Read

Yet another gift I received for Christmas was this book:



It is written by Timothy Gray of Variety fame ("Reel Life" column) and illustrated by J.C. Suares. It's a joyful nugget of Hollywood mockery, something you can easily read cover-to-cover on a bus ride. Some of the slang, or "slanguage" as it's called, is just simply ridiculous. Who calls a Western an "oater?"

And yesterday this book came from amazon:



This is one of those books I put in my wish list, then took out and then decided finally to just buy it. I had put it off simply because I knew its success was in dissuading Mainlanders from packing up and moving to Paradise with visions of a carefree life. I didn't want to lose the daydream of a future life on the Islands on those days when the rain and gloom seemed too much to take.

However, the book isn't all skepticism but rather realism. I think I'm ready to find out what it's really like to live like a local, rather than a tourist (despite convincing myself that somehow renting a house and buying groceries makes me more a kama`aina than a sun-drenched mogul at a 4-star resort in Waikiki). Full review to come!




Remember

For 6 years, I went to Liana Hair Salon on Capitol Hill (12th Ave, right next to CHAC) to get my hair cut. It was always easy to get in on short notice, the prices were reasonable and all the stylists were friendly and adept at cutting a man's hair. Plus, they had punch cards so every 11th cut was free!

It's a great place, but with the myriad choices of hair salons on Beacon Avenue I thought it made sense to at least try one of them out. The business district on Beacon Hill is surely lacking in some areas (no post office, no pizza joints), but there are an alarming number of hair salons -- even hair academies.

After trying to get in at The Chop House and deciding that $45 is too much for my hair, I wandered around and stopped at Lee's Hair Salon.



You enter through a sliding glass door and there are three chairs/stations to the left. To the right is a huge stack of magazines. Lee was not in the front area at first, but a person visiting her informed me that she would be there soon and checked the prices for me. Twelve bucks. I could handle that. Soon after Lee came out, a middle-aged Chinese woman who spoke broken English and had a sneezing problem. She asked me what I wanted and I told her my basic requirements. She went to work with precision and care, though had to stop for a delivery of some sort.

The cut took about twice as long as the ones at Liana, but the results were roughly the same and I spent $2 less. Lee must have a tendency of overheating because periodically she had to stop and open the sliding door for air. She also talked smack about the barber shop next door, but I didn't quite understand the context.

I was pleased. I'll go back. Lee only accepts cash, but I did see a current business license on the wall.

Worry

This month's issue of NW Hawaiian Times has an update on Benny Lagmay, who I wrote about last month. The Duvall "Benny Lagmay Day" was a success, along with the benefit, but he still needs help to reach the $250,000 mark for a new heart.

You can still donate to the Benny Lagmay fund at any US Bank location and some of the Duvall businesses are still donating portions of proceeds to Benny.

Let's hope it all works out for the Lagmay family. The article in NW Hawaiian Times is not on-line yet, but you can pick up an issue of the paper at most businesses in the International District, or the Islander Restaurant or Hawaii General Store.