A princess, a show and some noodles

Read

Yesterday I finished reading Pauahi: The Kamehameha Legacy by George Hueu Sanford Kanahele , the free book I received from the Kamehameha schools as an incentive for completing one of their on-line courses. The book seems designed to reach out to the kids in the school system, to invoke in them a sense of pride in the woman who founded the Kamehameha Schools.



Bernice Pauahi Bishop was part of the Kamehameha Dynasty, and was offered the throne twice. Both times she turned it down. She married a haole, a man named Charles Bishop. Together they traveled, studied, and worked hard to make Hawai`i a better place. Upon her death, Pauahi had become the wealthiest woman in Hawai`i after inheriting thousands of acres from her parents and Princess Ruth. She was never able to have children herself, nor did adoption work out for her and Charles. Instead, she became the largest benefactor of Hawaiian eduction and cultural perpetuity ever.

The author does a lot of conjecturing on what Pauahi might have been thinking, or what her impressions of certain experiences and events probably were at the time. It's a quick read, one I did entirely on my bus commutes (which means certain passages I might not have fully comprehended/appreciated because of the noise/distractions). I think one of the truly beautiful things about Hawaiian culture is the constant effort to remind future generations of where things began, to instill gratitude. Whether it's a generous ali`i, a taro root, or the magnificent Sea it's always revered and respected.

See/Eat/Drink

On Friday night Dan & I made a trip to old neighborhood (Capitol Hill). Surprisingly, after living there for more than a decade, we don't find ourselves back very often. I think part of it is the parking, and part of it is just that we like our house so much.

We met up with our friends Jason & Jayson, who we hadn't seen in quite some time for dinner at one of their favorite new spots, Boom Noodle. The owners of the successful Blue C. Sushi restaurants are now venturing into noodle territory.



I began with a mojito and then munched on a chicken skewer that was very tender and well seasoned. For my entree I went with something very basic, beef yakisoba but later wished I had been more daring.

After dinner and another drink at the new-and-improved Cha Cha, we went to Annex Theatre to see our friend Spencer's play called S2. It imagined a bleak dystopia, a familiar setting for modern satires, where Corporation meets Government and people speak in robotic, repetitive phrases and a pre-occupation with sex seems to distance real human contact. The acting was quite impressive and the use of visual backdrops was innovative. We all agreed it could have been edited down a bit, but I know how hard it is to let stuff go in a script.



Post show, we went to yet another new Capitol Hill establishment called Grey Gallery & Lounge for another drink. There was a little living room-esque area upstairs that we crowded into, and caught up a bit before calling it a night.



Remember

After our crazy (for us) Friday night, we mostly stuck around the house for the rest of the weekend. Dan finished the patio (pictures to come!) and I planted some carrot seeds and re-potted the tomato plant. Veggies seem to be growing. We've also been using Crest White strips to brighten our smiles for the wedding, and I'm finding them challenging. The bottom ones tend to slip off and for some reason I can't swallow easily while they're in. I will persevere, though, since white teeth are tantamount to a healthy marriage.

Fun weekend!

Eat/Drink/See/Remember

I had a super fun weekend!

It started out on Friday with happy hour at Luau, my favorite Seattle bar to celebrate my sister Lisa's last day of work at Amazon. She is now a free agent so we all toasted to that. I had my usual Mai Tai, as I'm sure I've mentioned before that they are the best in town. For dinner, I tried one of the last remaining items on the menu I hadn't yet tasted, the Fried Rice with Sausage. Yum! Leftovers for a great Sunday breakfast, too.



Since we had so many people in our party, we go to sit in the ultra-cool Bora Bora room, which is usually reserved for private parties and requires a fee. It has a nice fish tank that my nephew Jack enjoyed almost as much as his Sprite with cocktail umbrellas!

Saturday morning we awoke early and headed to the Woodland Park Zoo to meet up with my future in-laws for the Garlington Mother's Day fun. It had been years since I'd been to that zoo, and I was impressed by now well they keep the grounds and by the expansive exhibits. I had a great time with my new camera.







It also happened to be "Mom & Me," the second busiest day of the year at the zoo so we opted to go elsewhere for lunch. I had just read in one of the Seattle magazines about May in Wallingford, supposedly the best Thai in the city. It wasn't crowded so we were seated immediately and the lunch menu appears to be the same as the dinner one so all options were available to us. I went with the red curry w/ chicken.



Delicious with some nice heat (as they say on Top Chef!). Dan's parents both ordered the Phad Thai and they mixed it right at the table. All in all, I was impressed by the decor, service, presentation and tasty food. I will be back, maybe to try to lounge downstairs for happy hour. I hear they make a mean cocktail.

After a few quick stops (EE Robbins to pick up our rings being one of them!) and a brief stop at home to wrap Mom's day gift #2, it was back to Wallingford to celebrate the Dembiczak matriarch. My sisters had taken my mom out to a day at the spa, lunch and shopping so we opted for casual this year with some pizzas and a salad. The pies came from Olympia Pizza, which used to be a favorite dining spot for us when we lived on Capitol Hill. It was a pleasant reunion, as I scarfed down 3 slices of garlic chicken.



And for dessert, my sister Lisa brought some tasty chocolate chip cookies.



With all the excitement of Friday and Saturday, it was nice to not have any plans on Sunday. I attended to usual Sunday chores (laundry, grocery shopping, preparing for the work week) in addition to finally planting some veggies! We'll see how green my thumb is, but the line-up is: basil, squash, broccoli, red pepper, cucumber and tomatoes. Dan made great strides with the patio, and I helped him on the first shift. Lifting concrete is hard work!

Only 29 days until we leave for Hilo!

Catching Up

A little bit of everything

Oh dear, it's been forever. I came down with a nasty bug that rendered me useless for a good chunk of April. You can read all about it (and my love affair with hot dogs) in Dan's blog.

Aside from the illness, there have been a whirlwind of wedding plans and that pre-vacation frenzy that happens when you take more than a week off from work.

I have had time to eat/drink/read/see/remember/worry, though.

A few highlights:

On April 26th (Saturday) we drove up to Snoqualmie Falls and stayed a night at the beautiful Salish Lodge. This place has to be the best hotel in the region. The service is impeccable, the place is always spotless and no one raises his or her voice in the lobby or spa. I love it. This was our second time, and the first on our own dime (Dan's parents bought us a spa package a few years back - wonderful!). This time we took my parents up as we got them a gift card toward their stay for their Christmas present. We decided to tag along and got a room next to theirs.





Much good food was had (you can also read all about what we ate on Dan's blog). I particularly loved the ahi nicoise (don't ask me to pronounce) and the smoke salmon brioche with caviar and poached egg I had for breakfast.



Dan is installing a cement patio in our backyard, all made with recycled pieces we got for free. Someone dumped it all off for us in front of our house so transporting it to the back was an exhausting chore. I helped with it some, but Dan ended up doing the lion's share of the work.



I am very excited to see how it turns out. I think it will the perfect place to hang out this summer with friends, food, and firepit!

We decided to take our cat outside and he met our neighbor's dog.



Last week we had to go to Bellevue so we dined on a vast array of pupus at Trader Vic's (they pass the good mai tai test, too!)



So much more, but I am so behind. I'm learning Hawaiian (slowly) by CD and book. I began reading a new book on Bernice Pauahi Bishop. I bought my first suit yesterday.

Only 37 days until we leave for the Big Island! It is really clicking in!

Talking Story, eating chicken, getting woo-woo

Read

On Sunday I finished reading Hotel Honolulu. While a bit long for a novel, it turned out be a fairly quick and breezy read, and all-in-all supremely entertaining. That first paragraph did not lead to disappointment!

The story centers around the unnamed narrator (seemingly close in nature to the actual author, Paul Theroux), who has left the Mainland and the world of writing to become a regular guy in Waikiki. He gets a job managing a run-down hotel owned by a capricious, debaucherous millionaire named Buddy Hamstra. Buddy ends up figuring into the story heavily, particularly in the final third.

The novel is really a connection of short stories and anecdotes of all the visitors, employees, local gossips, prostitutes and locals who touch the Hotel Honolulu and make their impression upon the narrator. It sometimes reminded me of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series, though less enduring. Here most characters are introduced, and then maybe given 1-3 chapters of backstory before some sort of resolution is met. However, there are a handful of mainstays whose stories are interwoven throughout the narrative.

Theroux has a firm command of the English language and uses it to explore some interesting themes of language and literature in relation to our culture, or any culture. The narrator exists, constantly, as an outsider, one whose world has been in books and often flails in attempts to understand this new realm where the sun always shines and improper grammar reigns.

This passage eloquently paints the picture of our narrator's inner struggles:

"The printed word was a source of energy to me, giving me hope and verifying what I felt. In fact, for long periods on this island over the past years I had felt that there was much more dreamed in literature than every contemplated in heaven and earth."

The first two-thirds are chocked full of bizarre histories, scandals, perversions and surprising twists. The last third slows down, becoming more of a meditation on what it means to be a grown man in a new place trying to make sense of a life that doesn't always seem the right fit.

Great read. I recommend it - great for a plane ride or a vacation in the sun.

Eat

This past Friday we went to the Eylsian Fields Brewery to celebrate Dan's sister's 37th birthday. I had no idea there was another Elysian. I've been going to the one on Capitol Hill for years, for its consistently tasty food and casual atmosphere.

This one is a bit more upscale and elegant. The space, located across from Qwest Field, is very spacious. The bar area is separate and there are even some private dining areas that I assume are rented out for events. The menu was more upscale, too, with several seafood dishes, steak but still with some standard options like burgers and salads. I went with the roasted chicken and mashed potatoes. Perhaps it was because I hadn't eaten much that day, but I could not stop raving about it, all the way to the car after dinner and even the next day! Yum!

Remember

Last night I took a class called "Intro to Huna" at South Seattle Community College, through their Continuing Education program. It was a two-hour seminar, introducing the basic elements to Huna, an ancient philosphy practiced by Hawaiians. It is unclear exactly how it came to be practiced on the Hawaiian Islands. Some believe it came from Egypt and was then delivered by Israelis while some believe it originated in the land known as Atlantis while even others believe it came from up above. Regardless, people still practice it today and it actually makes a lot of sense.

In Huna, there are three selves: the young or low self (child), the middle self (the one who speaks and reasons) and the high self (like your own personal god, or guardian angel who you ask for things).

Our instructor was an engaging speaker, brimming with passion on the topic. The idea that had the most resonance for me was, to no surprise, that we worry about things we don't want to happen, and all that energy goes into thinking "I don't want to feel sick" or "I don't want to be poor." Our younger self does not hear the "don't" and so we end up experiencing, or bringing about, exactly what we do not want. Instead, we ought to focus on what we want in positive terms.

I still feel like I have more to learn on this topic before I can speak to its full effects. I look forward to doing more research and allowing it to change some of my habits.

Bucolic Luxury/Fraternal Splendor

Remember (and Worry)

Moloka`i Properties Limited, owners of the Moloka`i Ranch and the beautiful Moloka`i Lodge announced last week that it is shutting down all operations including Molokai Lodge, the Kaupoa Beach Village, the Kaluakoi Golf Course, the Maunaloa gas station, the Maunaloa Tri-Plex theatre, cattle-rearing, and the company's substantial maintenance operations.

Over the next 60 days more than 120 employees will be laid off. This is very significant to the island's economy, as the populations stands at about 8,000. The operations closing down will likely have a devastating impact on the few remaining businesses on the West side of the island as well.


My fiance and I visited this area twice back in late November/early December 2006. We first had lunch at the Lodge (one of the most impressive hotel lobbies I've ever seen) at the outside bar, and then came back on our last night on the island to indulge in the main dining room. The meal was very pleasing as I recall, and the service quite attentive. The grounds on the hotel property were well maintained and within walking distance was the small strip of businesses - collectively making up the town of Maunaloa. There we found a delightful kite shop/toy/book/souvenir shop and purchased some christmas gifts for my nephews as well as a few things for my dad. It was a little oasis -- a quiet corner of the world where you had all the amenities of a vacation resort in a pastoral setting that has become increasingly difficult to find in our ever-developing world.

Now the fate of all the properties is up in the air, as I'm sure the bidding will begin for new ownership. There is a strong movement by the people of Moloka`i to gain the land so they have more control over its destiny, but with a $200 million price tag it will take more than just creative fundraising.

The basis of the sudden closure seems to be a frustration with the strong opposition by the Moloka`i people to the company's "Master Plan." Much of this plan is ostensibly the development of luxury properties at La'au Point. It is unfortunate that such drastic action had to come of all the disagreement.

See

My fiance loves television. And I love that he loves television. Before I met him, I wasn't quite in the "Kill your TV" camp but dangerously close. I watched a few shows here and there, but mostly rented movies. While I still mostly prefer to sit down to watch a program as opposed to just zoning out with the remote, I've become much more of a TV-nut. Often I will hold out on shows that my fiance records, not wanting to commit myself to yet another 30-60 minutes per week.

One such show was the ABC Family dramedy Greek. I thought "How could a show about college kids in fraternities and sororities on the same network that does High School Musical and that show with the (now) pregnant girl be entertaining to men in their thirties?"




One night I finally sat down and gave it a shot. Okay, pretty snappy dialogue. I have a weakness for teenager stuff (Heathers, Mean Girls, Bring it On, all those John Hughes movies -- not to mention, those tempestuous years of adolescence on 90210!). I took me about two episodes before I was fully hooked, but then I just added it go the list of must-see TV. It's a smart show, a sweet show and it appears to be a step toward the edge for the network. One of the main characters is gay and rushing a fraternity and he hooked up with another frat gay. Drama ensues, and highlights the inherent intolerance in the fraternity system. Kids have sex and drink, and the sexy villainess of the show is not played by a buxom blonde but by a talented up-and-coming Indian actress. All of these things point to a show that is not only entertaining to someone like myself, but also a show that is moving in the right direction for a network that has so much influence on today's youth. Go ABC Family!

There Goes Pele! (See and Remember)

She's at it again. For the first time since 1982, Kilauea on the Big Island of Hawai`i has begun erupting. People are flocking to see, as lava drifts toward residential neighborhoods in the Puna District.

Hotel Honolulu Cantina Moon

Read

I just started reading Paul Theroux's Hotel Honolulu, a 424-page novel about a blocked writer trying to lead a normal life as the manager of a run-down Waikiki hotel. It is one of those rare treats in literature; the very first paragraph is magic. It pulled me in immediately and I have marveled at the writing every since. It's quick, smart, clever-but-not-too-clever and accurately depicts the Hawai`i they don't write about in guide books or resort brochures.

I am pasting in the first paragraph because I think it is so brilliant:

"Nothing to me is so erotic as a hotel room, and therefore so penetrated with life and death. Buddy Hamstra offered me a hotel job in Honolulu and laughed at my accepting it so quickly. I had been trying to begin a new life, as people do when they flee to distant places. Hawaii was paradise with heavy traffic. I met Sweetie in the hotel, where she was also working. One day when we were alone on the fourth floor I asked "Do you want to make love?" and she said "Part of me does." Why smile? At least we did it, then often, and always in the same vacant guest room, 409. Sweetie got pregnant, our daughter was born. So, within a year of arriving, I had my new life, and as the writer said after the crack-up, I found new things to care about. I was resident manager of the Hotel Honolulu, eighty rooms nibbled by rats."

That is craftsmanship. I have mostly been reading non-fiction and how-to lately so I am elated that the novel I picked to shake things up is such a good one so far. It kind of makes me want to write fiction again, though I'm so rusty after focusing on scriptwriting for all those years.



Drink

Last night after work I headed over to the old neighborhood to meet up with our friend Sarah, who was visiting from Bellingham. She recently moved up there to go back to school for graphic design. She had us all meet up at the new and improved Cha Cha Lounge. The lounge is now underneath the restaurant portion, Bimbo's Cantina and does not open until 5pm so we hung out up there for a little bit. The service was fast and friendly and the Bartender's Margaritas made very well (maybe too well...easy to drink those suckers!). The downstairs is like a whole other world. While the old Cha Cha was compact, cramped with low ceilings and not a lot of open space, the new Cha Cha is palatial in comparison: high ceilings, plenty of seating, very open floor plan. The decor is still kitsch, but with an upscale twist. And yes, still very red.



See

Did you see the moon last night? Dan took this picture as we headed to our car in Columbia City after another reliably tasty meal at El Sombrero.