Pastor Scott's Thoughts

I'm moving to Word Press

2010-03-10T15:28:00.000-10:00

So I’ve decided to move to word press. I recently got this new blog software that should make created blogs a little easier (so maybe I can blog more often...) but it doesn’t do pictures really well. It does however seem to work well with word press so I’m making the change.

Please go to http://pastorscottsthoughts.wordpress.com for further reading pleasure.

New Blogs I'm Excited About

2010-03-10T14:45:00.002-10:00

So I’ve been a church employee now for the past 7 years or so and during that time I’ve worn several different hats. When I first started I was an intern in charge of the college ministry. Then after two years of that I did the college ministry and I also worked on the maintenance crew outside with Uncle Augie (20 hours each). Then, they moved me to the Singles ministry (where I met my wife Keao). Then in addition to the Singles ministry I also took the job of operations manager. But they gave that portion of my job away so I picked up the Sports ministry (still following?). Finally in the last year I did the Singles (and expanded it to include Couples too), the Sport ministry, Community Service and now my fourth hat IT. I did this all in the span of 7 years.

Of all the things I’ve done, I think I may be least qualified to do the IT. I mean, I like computers and everything but I really have very little formal training on all things related to computers. Maybe it’s because I spend so much time online. Who knows?

One of the first things I’ve been doing recently is trying to get our staff more in tuned with technology and keeping their webpages fresh and with new content. I’m also encouraging them to use more social media like Facebook, Twitter and blogging.

Every once in awhile, I’ll say something good and you know what? People are listening. We now have two more staff members starting blogs. I hope they keep it up (I’m subscribing with my Google reader). So without further ado, if you’re interested, here are our two latest staff blogs.

http://carlmoore.posterous.com/

http://alcolleenkalama.posterous.com/

http://stanton808.posterous.com/

Starting March Off Right

2010-03-02T00:37:00.003-10:00

Here's the latest installment of our Ignite monthly newsletter. So far so good. Two months and two newsletters (I started in February, not January). If I can keep up this pace we'll be in good shape.

Avatar v. Pocahontas

2010-02-27T22:14:00.004-10:00

So after everyone told me how good Avatar was Keao and I finally caved in and saw it. Don't get me wrong, I did want to see it and we probably would have seen it anyway regardless of whether it was recommended or not. It's just that everyone was recommending it so much I got a little wary (similar to how everyone raved about the first Pirates of the Caribbean).

After seeing it in 3-D (or at least I think it was 3-D, hard to tell with double vision) I can honestly say I thought the story was okay, but the graphics were amazing. I mean, the world of Pandora that they created was visually stunning. The story though I thought was a little cliche and a little new-agey.

With that said, I stumbled on a paper written by Matt Bateman that sums up my thoughts about the story of Avatar (and I'm sure most of you have already seen this little gem as it did make its way around the internet).

Matt's now famous paper

So there you have it. Avatar is a futuristic copy of Pocahontas (and I'm sure a ton of other stories as well). This paper made me laugh out loud, but today I stumbled upon something even more funny than this paper. Somebody had taken the audio of the Avatar trailer and superimposed scenes from Pocahontas over it. Guess what? It matches up perfectly. Don't believe me? Take a look for yourself!

Video Newsletters

2010-02-06T21:42:00.004-10:00

So I've decided I'd like to commit to making video newsletters every month this year. Partly to inform people what's happening with Ignite, but also to just fool around with a camera and to see if I can do it. I read somewhere that if you consistently change your website (or keep it somewhat fresh I suppose) then people will tend to look at it on a more regular basis. I don't know about you, but since I haven't received many comments lately, I would have to conclude that either my content isn't fresh enough for anyone to comment on anything or simply, no one looks at this blog anymore. Not that it matters though, I write mainly for me and for posterity's sake.

This month I employed Matt as a camera man and we shot this video in one take right after boot camp (well after I rested and got my heart rate back to normal). I then took about 3 hours to edit it down to 1:40. I can't believe it took that long! Hopefully in the future I can get the editing time down a bit so I don't spend so much time on it.

Anyway, without further ado, here's my very first video newsletter:

What Could Have Been...

2010-02-03T11:31:00.003-10:00

A few years ago Kess Wilson got married. Now it's not that big of a deal that he got married, I mean people get married all the time right? Well, Kess is a member of our church and naturally he got married at our church campus. Now, I'm not that close with Kess so I wasn't really invited to his wedding (nor was I expecting one) but Kess' brother is none other than Dean. If you don't know Dean Wilson, he is a Castle High School graduate and one of the most successful professional golfers from Hawaii.

So where am I going with all of this? Well my wife, Keao, is the wedding coordinator at our church and she told me about the wedding. She also mentioned that Dean would be Kess' best man. On Kess' wedding day, I was on the Big Island and so my only request to Keao was to get me an autograph from Dean. Did it happen? Alas, no. She said Dean was a rather imposing figure and she was too intimidated to ask him for an autograph. The most she told him was, "my husband's a big fan!"

Well at least he knows I'm a fan (although I'm sure he doesn't know who I am). So no autograph, no golf ball, nothing.

Fast forward to this year. The Golf Channel did a nice segment on Dean Wilson's home. I wasn't invited to that party either, but Kess is sporting a nice Hope Chapel shirt. Anyway, take a look:

Dim Sum Day!

2010-01-29T18:05:00.003-10:00

Last week I got an invitation in my Facebook mailbox inviting me to an event called "Dim Sum Day". Now if you know me, you know that I absolutely love Chinese food and of all the Chinese food there is Dim Sum is probably at the very top of the list. So after accepting the invitation as fast as I could, all that remained was the countdown to the big day.

Well, today was that day and here are some pictures.

Chinese New Year is less than a month away so the Chinese Cultural Plaza was gearing up for the big holiday

Our restaurant of choice, Won Kee

Matt Kudo was the event organizer. We know each other from church and he's a great guy. Whenever he invites me to anything I always try to accept because he normally does really fun and exciting things. I've never eaten at Won Kee, but have passed it many times on the way to Legends (right next door). Was it as good as Legends? Take a look at some of the pictures.

Richard and Leah sample some of the wares

There were fourteen of us split over two tables

This was a first for me, chicken feet

More food including my favorite, deep fried taro puffs. We also had a sesame roll (the black thing on the bottom) and some sort of look fun wrapped pastry (top left)

Table 1: Irene, Matt, Kacie, Bryon, Grant, Caelly and Mel

Table 2: Matt, Art, Richard, Leah, Steve and Rachel

Overall, it was a great meal. I definitely tried things I never tried before thanks to Art who took over the ordering duties (he did a great job). I didn't realize how many varieties of dessert dim sum were. Congratulations to Steve too. For someone living on this island for 33 years, it was his very first time trying dim sum in a Chinese restaurant. Of course a special thanks to Matt who said he organized this get together because he "wanted to eat dim sum and [he] wanted to eat it with friends". I'm stoked he considers me a friend. Lastly, we all ate until our hearts content and the meal came out to $8 a person. Not bad, not bad at all.

...And Adios Means Good-Bye

2010-01-27T14:19:00.002-10:00

The sign that welcomes patrons on Kapahulu Ave.

Well, it's official. The La Bamba era of Mexican food in Honolulu is over. For the past few years La Bambas has been a favorite spot for Keao and I. It's a place where we can get authentic Mexican food prepared by authentic Mexican cooks. A place where the service is friendly, the portions are generous and of course where take out is their specialty (mmm, that's sounds good, I'll have a take out please).

Of course since we heard the place was closing we had to have one final meal there. It was kind of sad knowing that we wouldn't be able to get the best guacamole on the island anymore along with such favorites as the nachos or lamb butaquitos. But I guess at some point all good things must come to an end.

This was truly a sad sight to see...

Apparently we weren't the only ones who heard about La Bamba closing, the line outside was huge!

Some of the other lucky patrons who already had a seat

The restaurant itself is quite small, it probably seats less than fifty, but when you only have one waitress named Dina, I'm sure fifty is quite enough. That night we brought a group of eleven and we took up two tables. We felt a little bad bypassing the line but hey, we had reservations so and we were about to eat some crazy good food so I guess in hindsight we didn't feel that bad at all (plus I had the super-VIP parking too!)

That's Dina in the brown shirt yelling something into the kitchen

Either everyone is really pleased (notice the thumbs up) or they're fighting to see who prays

Some of the authentic Mexican cuisine

Maybe it was the fact that they were closing or maybe it was just hunger, it seemed that everyone didn't hold back when it came to ordering. The popular orders for the night were the chimichanga plate (dos) with beans and rice and La Bamba's oversized burritos.

That's a burrito on the left covered with melted cheese

Ocha-san (Ted) seemed really excited about his burrito (but then again he's always excited about oversized burritos)

Notice how clean Ocha-san's plate is! No need even wash

Uncle David in the kitchen working his magic

By the time we left we were stuffed and a little sad. We're really going to miss this place. Keao and I loved it so much we even had our appreciation dinner here for everyone who volunteered at our wedding. We'll definitely miss the food, the charm and of course the excellent service. Good luck in the future La Bamba ohana and God bless

High School Rivalries

2009-12-23T15:22:00.003-10:00

Rivalries. They are everywhere. From sibling rivalries to sports you can't escape that there is just something special about beating your most hated rivals. Most rivalries are born when two competitors (whether intentional or not) meet or compete time and time again. For a rivalry to really be good, both sides should be competitive. If it's too lopsided (one team wins all the time), it becomes a boring rivalry. If you think about all famous rivalries (Yankees/Red Sox, Ohio State/Michigan or USC/UCLA to name a few) they all have a great fan base and a bitter hatred toward each other.

When it comes to high schools, we didn't have a rival. I went to a small, Baptist high school that didn't seem to think that anyone could compete with them so we didn't have a rival in the traditional sense (plus we had to play the large group sports by combining with other small schools).

But then I saw how two schools on the mainland took their rivalry to a new level. One school made a lip-dub video and basically told their rival to top it. Whether they did or not is up to debate (I think you can vote on which video you like more) but either way I thought it was great. There wasn't any trash talking or viciousness. It was simply this is what we did so see if you can do better.

This first video is the challenge and the second one is the response. Got a favorite rival that you want to challenge? I'd like to see what you can do!

Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore

2009-12-09T14:29:00.002-10:00

One of the great parts of my job as a pastor is being able to travel to Japan once a year. I have now gone to Japan maybe 9 times or so, but this year for the first time, I had a chance to go to a Japanese Costco. Big deal you may be saying to yourself. Costco? We have a Costco here.

And while it is true that we do indeed have a Costco here there are a few subtle differences between our Costco and the Japanese version. For one, the Japanese Costco takes yen and ours uses the more standard American dollar. But seriously, there were some pretty cool things at the Japanese Costco.

It's so Americanized that even the word 'entrance' is in English

Difference #1: I've never seen snow blowers at our Costco

Actually the biggest difference was in the foods. Our Costco just seems to have regular sized items that are just packaged in larger quantities. The Japanese Costco had larger sized fruits and vegetables that came in larger quantities.

Look at the size of those pears!

Here's Sharon giving new meaning to the phrase 'daikon legs'

The largest green onions I have ever seen in my life

Now if you're honest with yourself you know that one of the biggest reasons Costco is so enjoyable is the samples they give away. In Japan they don't mess around. They don't give away burrito samples or a few pita chips like we do. They give away freshly fried steak, raw salmon and even seasoned seaweed!

Some steak coming off the fryer

This was an soy bean tofu that I didn't particularly care for

But it was relatively inexpensive

Mmm, salmon (notice the small bottle of shoyu on the side)

Those salmon fillets look delicious

No samples of these, but the octopus and squid did look good

She didn't want to be in my picture, but she did open her cooler so we could see the samples

Yup, a big box of seaweed

And of course after a hard morning of shopping we did have to eat lunch somewhere. Again, it's like our Costco except with a few minor differences.

Can you spot the differences?

If you said Clam Chowder and Bulgogi Bake give yourself 100 points

Inside the Bulgogi Bake

The Clam Chowder was surprisingly good

And of course, one last reminder that we're truly in Japan is their birthday cake

We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

2009-11-13T15:49:00.002-10:00

Sometimes I am at a complete loss for words. The Bible tells us that sometimes we don't even know what to pray for, but the Holy Spirit will intercede on our behalf and pray with words that cannot be expressed (Romans 8:26). This is one of those times.

Yesterday I found out that while on their way to a conference in Oregon, a group of Bible college students from Colorado lost control of their van on the icy road and spun out of control. 13 of the 16 aboard were ejected. Two of them didn't make it.

Of course this is tragic in any case. Anytime there is such a loss of life it is sad. What brings this closer to home is the fact that one of the two people who passed away is the brother of one of our MiniChurch shepherds, Joy Pishcura.

So many times heard stories of tragic events all over the world and it seems so far away and so distant. It rarely hits this close to home. Not only was Joshua young (he was only 20) but he was on his way to doing great things in the Kingdom of God. He had his whole life ahead of him. He was taken away much too soon.

Please continue to pray for Joy and the whole Pishcura family. In addition to Josh passing away, his sister Katy was also a passenger in the van and she is in the ICU in Boise, Idaho. Pray for God's peace, pray for healing, pray for their families and friends and pray for all the love and support they will need in the upcoming weeks.

You can read the Denver Post's coverage of the accident here.

A Funny Story from the Road

2009-11-12T15:35:00.004-10:00

So it's been a while since I've last blogged. A real long while. It's not for a lack of things to blog about as much as just laziness. So sorry. I'll try not to be this lazy in the future.

The last few months have been a blur. At one point I spent 21 out of 22 nights sleeping away from home because I went on a missions trip to Japan followed by a wedding in New York and a vacation in Boston. Needless to say, I came back exhausted.

But Japan was great. I really feel like we're making great progress there and I can't wait to go back next year. There are many great stories from Japan and rather than try to write all of them now, I'll give you a funny one to start out with.

One of the great things that Pastor Ohigashi is doing in Sapporo is encouraging the house church movement. So one day during the middle of the week we drove out to Yoichi to visit them and stopped along the way in Otaru town.

Because there were a bunch of us going out to the country, we took two cars. In our car we took along a man named Mr. Honma. I love Mr. Honma. He is a man after my own heart. I guy loves to eat (all the omiyage he gives us is food). He has even been known to leave church (while it's still in session) to go and find something to eat. Needless to say, the man is hungry!

That's Honma-san on the bottom

So anyway, we stopped in Otaru town and did a little sightseeing. Otaru is an old town with many little shops selling trinkets and little knick-knacks. Of course, like many places in Hokkaido, they also have soft-cream.

Cruising the streets of Otaru

Now in Otaru they take their soft cream very seriously. There's not just your standard chocolate or vanilla. That would be way too amateur. They don't even do the twist where they mix two flavors together. Rather, in Otaru they stack up the different flavors that you order (like a little soft serve snowman).

Here's the exciting menu board

There are seven flavors you can choose from including milk, melon, green tea and even lavender. But like I mentioned earlier, you can get some stacked. They have a "flavors of Hokkaido" with five flavors or for those not as adventurous you can choose the one with three flavors.

Dural wasn't playing any games and got the five flavors

Akane opted for a more modest three

So anyway, Akane (the girl in the picture above) was one of our translators and because she speaks both Japanese and English, she was our designated orderer. Of course we all fired our orders to her and she had the unenviable task of relaying to the girl behind the counter making our soft creams. But in all the hustle and bustle, she forgot to order Mr. Homna's soft cream (you know, the one who loves to eat). I'm not going to lie, I have never seen a sadder looking man in my life. He looked positively crestfallen. We were in a rush and the line was long, so we weren't even sure if he would have enough time to stand in line again.

But as luck would have it (because I'm sure some of you are feeling really sorry for him right now) David, another team member, was already in line and Mr. Honma got to have a soft cream like the rest of us.

Once we got on the road again, Mr. Honma shared his feelings toward almost being left out of the soft cream party. Through our translator Akane, he said his spirit became sad when he saw all of us happily eating our soft creams. He asked God, "Why? Why can't I have a soft cream too?".

Then, he said, when he say David come with a soft cream for him, he was overjoyed. He said he wanted to jump up and down but he was afraid that he might drop his soft cream and become saddened again.

So I told Mr. Honma, "Well you know, we did order for you the soft cream the first time, but the person who failed to get it for you is sitting right next to you." To which Akane, who was sitting right next to Mr. Honma sheepish looked at me and said, "I'm not going to interpret that."

And she didn't. Poor Mr. Honma will never know why he didn't get to eat soft cream with the early crew.

The Man, the Myth, the Legend

2009-09-22T16:41:00.004-10:00

A few weeks ago we had a smoking class at church. No, not that kind of smoking silly. We learned how to make smoked meats and cheeses. It was a great class because all class long you could smell the smell of brisket, pork, ribs, salmon and cheese smoking away. Even now, my stomach is rumbling at the thought of how good the food was.

Anyway, the week before the class I got a random call from a woman named Iris. She heard about the class and was interested in doing a similar class at her work place. She's recreational specialist for the City and County of Honolulu and she works at Kualoa Regional Park.

I don't know if you know this, but for five fun-filled summers, I worked at Kualoa as a camp counselor. I didn't have the privilege of working with Iris, but we definitely worked with some of the same people. So while she was on the phone, I told her that I worked there from '97-'01 and we exchanged the usual pleasantries.

Summer camp 1999

Kualoa was one of the best experiences of my life. I mean, what other job pays you to go camping every summer? Not only that, but we did 3-day camps so if you had wonderful kids you looked forward to the next camp and if your kids were rotten you were only stuck with them for three days. What a beautiful system!

Not only that, but we got to dress up, plan skits, play games and basically be kids all over again. I learned how to steer a canoe, honed my puppetry skills and learned how to sleep on tables (because someone once told me that centipedes couldn't climb up table legs).

Man, I wish I still knew where my Bruce Lee costume was!

It was also at Kualoa where I learned the joys of tempera paint. For some reason almost every costume at Kualoa used generous amounts of paint. Of course, many of the activities involved costumes so we must have gone through gallons of the stuff. I'm amazed that no one developed any sort of skin problems over the years based on the amount of paint that regularly covered our bodies.

I'm not sure who I'm supposed to be, but judging by the picture I was some Polynesian member of KISS

So anyway, back to the smoking class. Iris shows up and I walk over to her to introduce myself. The first thing that comes out of her mouth and I swear I'm not making this up is "you're Scott? I asked about you when we got off the phone. You're a legend at Kualoa." The last line she whispered, almost reverently. At first my only reaction was one of surprise. "Legend?" I responded. "I'm no legend. Mr. Bryce, now he's a legend. Compared to him I'm more of a folktale."

Right before we took the canoes out (that's Mr. Bryce on the far left)

Of course over time some things get blown out of proportion and stories get more embellished. Still I would hardly consider myself a legend. There were many great people that I got to work with that had been there as long as I had (and even longer). Oddly enough, there were many of us that worked there at least five years considering the job was really for college students.

But I don't think I have ever worked with a more talented and dedicated group of people. They amazed me every week with their costumes and creativity. Every week we had to do skits, come up with new dances and songs and keep each other entertained. And I can say with confidence that over those five years I hardly saw anyone repeat a song or skit. Not to say that everything was original, but even the recycled material had tons of new variants added to it.

So a legend? Nah. The only thing I ever did there that even garnered any attention was one costume that I wore at final assembly. I was inspired by my people, the ancient Hawaiians and it consisted of a single piece of fabric.

Look Mom, I tied it all by myself!

Think Blue, Part 1

2009-08-19T16:29:00.006-10:00

So many of you already know this, but I am a huge Los Angeles Dodgers fan. I have been since the sixth grade. And although I have been to some pretty great sporting events in my life I had never been to Dodger Stadium. I have seen the Dodgers play before, but that was in Washington DC when I was there for a conference and the Dodgers were there playing against the Nationals.

At the time of this writing, the Dodgers are currently in first place in the NL West and when we went to LA they had the best record in baseball (currently they have the best record in the National League). Of course my hope is that they will win the World Series so being the eternal optimist that I am, I convinced Keao that we had to see the Dodgers this year because this is their year.

And, not only do we need to watch a game at Dodger Stadium, but we also need to take the stadium tour so we can really get the good fan experience. So instead of being at the ballpark just once during the day, we would end up going there twice.

The sign that greets you upon entering the parking lot

On a clear day you can just make out the famous Hollywood sign

The tour started out with us walking around the upper deck for a while as our Dodger Ambassador, Jordan, gave us some history of the park. This part was pretty interesting. But that was just the start...

Our next stop was down an elevator to the press box level. We went into one of the conference rooms where we watched a short video about the future of Dodger Stadium. Of course it was hosted by Vin Scully, the legendary Dodger broadcaster.

This is Tommy Lasorda's retired jersey number in the conference room

Next up was the Vin Scully press box. The actual box where Vin Scully calls the games every night. I believe it is literally one of the best seats in the house.

Here I am pretending to call the game

Here's the view from the press box

After fooling around in the press area for a little while we then got to check out the luxury suites. Some of them are really nice, it's too bad I'll probably never get to watch a game from there.

There's everything in here including food!

I like the theme of this table and stools

Ronald, Tommy and Keao

They even have a pool table in case the game gets boring

Frank Sinatra's actual seats

Here he is sitting in one of them

Afterward we kind of worked our way down to the ground level stopping by the entrances to the Dodger and visitor clubhouses. We then entered the Dugout Club, a high-end club with tons of Dodger memorabilia.

Before the World Series trophy they gave out bats to the World Series winners. Those five bats are from the Dodger World Series championships before 1988

This is home plate from Ebbets Field that the Dodgers took with them when they came to Los Angeles

Did you know that Babe Ruth briefly coached for the Dodgers?

Then we got to go tour the field and the dugout, but not before getting to walk through the tunnel that leads directly to the doors of the Dodger clubhouse.

Keao doing her best Prince Fielder impression

In the dugout with the Jr. Dodgers

Next to Joe Torre's bench

Sweet Lou Johnson

The view from behind home plate

To view the rest of the pictures click here.

The Happiest Place on Earth

2009-08-14T16:46:00.004-10:00

Last month Keao and I celebrated our second full year of marriage (yay!). To celebrate we decided to take a short trip to LA (yay again!). Now, when it comes to planning trips, I like to squeeze in as much as I can because I only have a limited time so after flying all night (we landed at LAX at 6:30am) we got our rental car and drove straight down to Anaheim, home of the Disneyland Resort. Now if you do the math that meant that we only had around 4 hours of sleep on the airplane (by which I mean I slept and Keao read a book next to me) before we started our really long day.

Ready for a fun-filled day at Uncle Walt's place

We first met up with Nich and Tricia for breakfast as we would be spending the day with them. Tricia, our roommate, spent the summer in California and Colorado going to various conferences and doing some vacationing so we hadn't seen her since May. Nich, her boyfriend, lives in California so we hadn't seen him since before even that. So after scarfing down some food from Mimi's Cafe, we headed over to Disneyland for our day full of fun.

We decided to go to California Adventure first and after taking a few pictures we headed to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

Look! We're on a really long street!

Right before the ride while we're still smiling

The story behind this ride has something to do with the Hollywood Tower Hotel being struck by lightning and you going to the Twilight Zone. This is one of my absolute favorite rides and I've ridden it in Florida as well as Tokyo. Every time I ride I just keep thinking what a great job Disney did with it. It should be noted though, that the American version is a much tamer version compared to the Japanese version (well at least the story is, the actual ride part is quite similar).

Notice the difference in architecture in the Japanese version?

Since it was such a hot day we also decided to hit the rapids ride as well. You gotta love rides that have the disclaimer "you will get wet, you might get soaked". I for one, didn't really want to get wet. I was perfectly content to stay dry and warm. Unfortunately it was not meant to be. We almost made it the entire way when my lovely wife started complaining about how she didn't get wet. Literally five seconds after she says that a huge geyser shoots up behind us and soaks us to the skin.

She how happy she is?

It should also be noted that I was wearing a Spam shirt that day. I don't know what it is about Spam, but over the course of the day I got 7 compliments or references to my shirt. From the time we got on the rental car shuttle, to the Disney employee who told me he loved Spam, to the girl that simply screamed Spam as she was passing by. People really seemed to notice the shirt.

People also noticed the big turkey leg I ate while I walked by them too. One of the best things about Disney theme parks is the turkey legs. I'm sure you have seen pictures of me eating them before, but just in case you haven't, here's one more.

Me and Nich acting all manly with our huge turkey legs

After having our fill of turkey legs we did some exploring. We managed to find a real Hawaiian girl in Lilo during the parade and even found the entrance to Club 33, a super exclusive club that's the only place within Disneyland proper that serves alcohol.

This parade almost made us late for our Fast Pass to Soarin' over California

I wonder what it would take to get me in there...

It's no secret I love Disney. Last year I was fortunate enough to visit the Animal Kingdom in Orlando and Disney Sea in Tokyo and then to top it all off I now was able to spend a nice day at Disneyland with my wife and a few close friends. Does it get any better than this?

I'm not going to lie, it was a long day. We didn't leave the theme park until almost midnight and if you compound that with our lack of sleep we were pretty beat. We did manage to sleep in a little the next day though. I'll tell you about that adventure real soon.

To view the rest of the Disneyland pictures click here.

Otto Cakes

2009-08-14T16:21:00.002-10:00

So around 15 years ago my good friend Tom-Tom was playing in a punk band called Grapefruit. During that time, Tom-Tom and Grapefruit were kind of quasi-celebrities in the local punk scene. He did tell me of a bass player in another band that made these incredible cheesecakes. I'm not too huge of a cheesecake fan, but based purely on Tom-Tom's recommendation I have always wanted to try one, but I just never got the chance.

Last month that all changed. Even though it's now 15 years later and Tom-Tom doesn't play with his punk band too much anymore, Otto is still making cheesecakes and he even opened up a store in Chinatown. Since I was in Chinatown last month and we happened to come across his store, I finally had a chance to try one of his much-heralded cheesecakes.

Otto's one-of-a-kind cash register

The cheesecakes of the day

Otto boasts 86 different flavors of cheesecake (no doubt a reference to his band the 86 List) and he normally posts the flavors of the day on his Twitter page. The flavors on the particular day that we went in there were: lemon blueberry, white chocolate chip, black forest, key lime, irish creme, plain, and cherry chocolate chip. It is a bit pricey at $5 a slice, so if you want a slice make sure you're getting the right flavor.

The menu board

Even the boxes are punk rock

Here's what $10 will get you (at $5 a slice)

Now I'm no cheesecake connoisseur. In face, truth be told, I'm not even that big of a fan, but I must say that Otto Cakes are pretty darn good. They're very rich so one slice may be good enough for two people and they're very heavy. If you're in the mood for a great cheesecake with a really good crust Otto Cakes may be the right choice for you.

If you're interested in stopping by and having a slice Otto Cake is located in Chinatown at 1160 Smith Street, Honolulu, Hawaii 96817 and their phone number is (808) 834-OTTO

Go, Shorty. It's your Birthday

2009-07-16T18:06:00.003-10:00

This might be better suited to my friend John's blog (it's about "how to get rich"), but here's a little list of things that you can get for free on your birthday. That's right. I said free!

Actually, I'm not sure if all of these are valid in Hawaii, as we seem to get ripped all the time, but they're worth a try (for whatever of these places you can frequent in Hawaii).

Without further ado, here's a link to the list from "Hey it's free" (and I believe it's updated regularly).

Aren't We Getting Too Old for this Sort of Thing?

2009-07-07T21:54:00.005-10:00

Last night we took our friend Ted out to dinner. I know, I know, his birthday was in June and although we already went out once for his birthday the guy is so special we went out with him again. The place he chose was a small sushi restaurant, Kats Sushi.

They have all-you-can-eat-sushi for a very reasonable price (a little over $20/person) but there are some rules involved. First, only once order per person at a time (but that one person can order for the whole table) and second, you need to eat everything (including the rice). Anything not eaten will be charged to you. And, of course, being the competitive guys we are, we had to see who could eat the most sushi. So what did we eat? I'll let the pictures show you.

One one side of the table were the two Mikes, Kawakami and Worden

On the other side were the three Japanese guys (well, Kawakami was one the other side)

Round 1: maguro, hamachi, sake and unagi

Here's what I mean by everyone can order one type of sushi for the whole table. We all picked a different nigiri and they brought our five orders of it.

Round 1 concluded: hotategai rolls

Round 2: hokkigai and tako

Round 2 continued: spicy ahi and spicy salmon rolls

Round 2 concluded: spicy unagi rolls

About this time in our meal, we started keeping track of what we ordered so that we could make sure we got the most sushi for our dollar. We wanted to make sure we ate more than the cost of the buffet. Somewhere during this round I think we made our goal.

Here's the birthday boy enjoying another piece of sushi

Round 3: ebi

Round 3 continued: ikura and Hawaiian (ahi, shiso leaves and sprouts) rolls

Ikura is possibly my least favorite type of sushi. I only ate because everyone else was eating it. Ikura are fish eggs. When you're eating them they literally burst in your mouth. By burst, I mean they explode with a salty, fishy taste. Yuck. Good thing I'm a team player (and I didn't want to lose).

Round 3 concluded: spicy hamachi and salmon skin rolls

Here are the first two to drop

At the end of the third round the two Mikes threw in the towel. I wonder how they knew to sit together so they could quit together. Actually, Mike Kawakami never even made it out of the third round. That one lonely roll you see in the picture above is his. Ted ended up eating it.

John was the first on the Japanese side to drop out

Round 4: maguro and sake

We started round 4 with three competitors left. Notice there are only four pieces of maguro above? John quit after the salmon. We'll give him credit for completing half of the fourth round.

The last two standing

Ted and I actually had another order of saba nigiri but I forgot to take a picture. Overall, I think Ted came out the victor since he did eat Mike Kawakami's uneaten roll.

Final counts:

Ted: 19 pieces of nigiri and 9 rolls
Scott: 19/8
John: 16/8
Mike W: 14/8
Mike K: 14/7

My impression of the sushi was okay. It wasn't the best or worst I've ever eaten. The fish was good but the rice seemed a little mushy and heavily packed. It also tasted to heavily of vinegar for my liking. Plus, they make you order only one at a time and the night we went there was only one sushi chef so sometimes we had to wait a good 5-7 minutes before the next order appeared. When you're trying to eat as much as you possibly can those precious minutes only help you to get full. Of course for $20 it was a good deal and I would definitely eat there again.

We Got the Beat

2009-07-01T16:23:00.003-10:00

So here we are in July already. Man, where did our year go? We're past the halfway point and I've only blogged like 4 times this whole year (and one post was about what I wanted for my birthday). It's not that I don't have things going on in my life or that my life has suddenly gotten very boring, rather my life has gotten busier and I think I've gotten lazier.

But last Saturday night we had a big shindig we called "We Got the Beat". It was a celebration of the 80's where everyone was encouraged to dress up, dance and sing along to a karaoke machine.

Here's what welcomed the party goers

The party planning committee (Matt's MiniChurch) did a phenomenal job in planning and executing the party. Matt and Lauren planned out the snacks, the games and everything in between. They even had a set up and break down crew to do everything.

The best part of the night was the clothes! I couldn't believe the number of people that actually came in costume. I would say around 90% of the people who came dressed up in one form or another. Ignite, our ministry, never ceases to amaze me.

Short and shorter

Ernest (on the left) arrived first in his short, risque shorts. I think he was going for some sort of Village People look. Not to be outdone, Michael showed up as Tom Cruise in Risky Business (which is funny because his daughter Haley kind of looks like Suri, Tom Cruise's daughter).

Even Haley got into the swing of things

A little later, Michael changed into something a little more Dirty Dancing-esque.

Caelly (left), Lauren (center) and Irene (right) share a song

When I asked Caelly what she was going to wear, she said "I don't know, something 80's-ish." I asked her how she knew it was 80's-ish and she replied, "My mom said it was 80's." Five minutes later, I asked Irene the same question and oddly enough, she gave me the exact same answer! She said, "My mom said it was 80's!"

And of course, what's a party without dancing? I can honestly say that I never saw so many good moves all in one place! Here's a video mashup of some of the better moves.

To view the rest of the pictures click here.

It's Never Too Early

2009-06-02T15:31:00.001-10:00

So, I know my birthday isn't for another two and a half months, but I figured it's never too early to start throwing out those not-too-subtle hints. In case you're thinking about getting me something for my birthday, here's something you might consider.

More The Beatles: Rock Band News & Previews

Just a thought.

Boot Camp Update

2009-05-13T14:26:00.003-10:00

So I've completed my second session of boot camp. You can read about my thoughts from the first session here. Now as all four followers of my blog probably already know, I really only did boot camp because I was in "biggest loser" contest with Lori Higa. The contest started at the beginning of the year and concluded on Easter Sunday. We bet $20 on who could lose the most overall weight (not percentage as I suggested) over those 14 or so weeks. I'll admit that I didn't try very hard for the first month and a half because I just figured that as an overweight guy I wouldn't need to try very hard. I could probably just exercise during the last month and beat Lori.

But still, I wanted to make sure I won so I enrolled in boot camp. After the first six week session, I did see some very real, tangible results so I set a goal to do at least three six-week sessions. Now I've completed two sessions and here are my results.

This is the previous measurement from March

As you can see, I was around 210 lbs (which was lighter than I have been in a long time) with a body fat percentage of 26.5% (which equates to around 56lbs of fat). Since the average male should be carrying around 20 lbs of fat I could still could stand to lose around 36 lbs of fat.

Here is the latest measurement.

Notice anything different?

So seven weeks later my weight has dropped to around 200 lbs (I actually got down to 199 lbs for a brief while which is lighter than I was in high school!) and my body fat percentage dropped to 19.1%. Also since I can carry around 20 lbs of fat around I now only need to lose 18 lbs more.

So to recap, boot camp is great! It's hard, but great. I would recommend it to anyone. In the 14 weeks that I've been a part of this program I've lost around 20 lbs of overall weight and roughly 32 lbs of fat. If I can do it (remember I was the guy who was passed out upchucking on the side of the parking lot during the first class) anyone can!

For more information about boot camp leave me a comment. Classes for men are on Tuesday nights from 7-8pm and Saturday mornings from 9-10am. The coed classes are Tuesday nights from 6-7pm and Saturday mornings from 8-9am. The cost is $60 per six week session. It's totally worth it.

Crazy Love

2009-05-06T15:49:00.004-10:00

So the new book that our church leadership is going through is Crazy Love by Francis Chan. I haven't read it before, but I've heard some really good things about it (including a stellar review by my friend Chad who said it was in the top two books he's read). I was excited it read it but also a little nervous because I'm quite comfortable too.

So please join me on this journey. I'll be posting my thoughts as I read through the book both here and on our Ignite forum. Feel free to join the discussion that's happening on the forum. If you haven't picked up your copy of Crazy Love I highly suggest you do so. And now, without further ado, let's begin.

As I read the preface I already knew that this book would challenge me. After all, the opening quote rung so true with me, "to read the Bible, attend church and avoid 'big' sins--is this pi am not smartionate, wholehearted love for God?" Ouch! I mean, isn't that what we preach. Stay in your Word, stay connected to the church and don't screw up. If you do that then God will bless you and you'll live a prosperous life. But is that all it takes? Are we trying to avoid messing up so that when we get to heaven we'll be rewarded? Those are some heavy thoughts that makes me shift what I believe and how I want to live my life.

I really appreciate Francis Chan's open admission that his view of God was narrow and small (p. 20). I think most of our views of God are too narrow and small. He goes on to say that most of us view God as "a benevolent Being who is satisfied when people manage to fit Him into their lives in some small way. We forget that God never had an identity crisis" (p. 22). I definitely can say that many times I fall into the trap of feeling that way. I feel that because I spent 10 minutes in the Word, I am completely justified in playing video games for 3 hours.

So as we go through this book, I am looking forward to being challenged and praying for God to change me (but let it be painless Lord!!!).

What are your thoughts? Join the discussion by clicking here.

Your Eyes May Deceive You, Don't Trust Them

2009-04-15T15:27:00.003-10:00

There's this one part in Star Wars Episode IV where Luke is training with Obi-Wan and he's learning how to use a light saber. At one point in the training, Obi-Wan places a helmet on Luke and puts the blast shield down so Luke can't see anything. Luke then whines that he can't see and blah, blah, blah. Obi-Wan retorts with his famous line "your eyes may deceive you, don't trust them".

Many times in life we judge books by their covers and we find out that we're sorely mistaken. I stumbled across this clip from another blog, but talk about judging a book by its cover! Well, I won't reveal any more. Just watch the clip (it's a little over 7 minutes long, but it's worth it).

I can't embed it so you'll have to click here to watch it.

PS-if your eyes don't start sweating at some point then you have no heart :)

Bridge BBQ

2009-04-11T08:18:00.004-10:00

So this past week we have been hosting some Japanese people for a program called Bridge. Bridge was started some 20 years ago as a way to create a bridge between Japan and Hawaii with the intent of bringing Japanese leaders here to teach them MiniChurch, church planting and church leadership. The program stopped for awhile so this was our first attempt in over 10 years. This year's program brought in 4 people from Kansai and Tokyo and to celebrate the end of the program we had a BBQ.

Now I'm a big fan of this program on the Travel Channel called Man vs. Food. There was one episode in which they went to Minneapolis and tried a burger called the Jucy Lucy (or Juicy Lucy). Basically it's two beef patties with cheese in the middle. So instead of the boring run-of-the-mill cheeseburger with the cheese on top, this one has a nice layer of gooey melted cheese on the inside. When you first bite into it your mouth behold the power of cheese.

Sounds easy right? We decided to see if we could recreate this famous burger.

Here's Abby crimping the burgers together

Can you see the cheese bursting through on the right?

Finally, the finished product

Of course, being the good host that I am, I let our honored guests from Japan try the first burger. Here's Konomi, a 21 year-old girl from Kanagawa taking the first bite. We didn't tell her about our secret surprise in the middle so she was truly surprised when she bit into it and got a mouthful of boiling, bubbling cheese.

Itedakimasu!

Halfway through the half pound burger

After everyone had their fill of food, the guitars came out for an impromptu kanikapila session. It was really fun to just sit around and play music. Music truly is a universal language. The really awesome part was that after playing a few songs, our jam session turned in to a worship session and we were praising God in English and in Japanese all at the same time!

Kei, Konomi and Mizue (Bridge participants)

Braddah G and JC doing it local style

Dural, Krystal and Keao pick a good song to play

It was a five man acoustical jam!

Good friends, good food and good music. What better way to spend an evening?

Going on a Trip? See You Next Fall!

2009-03-26T23:41:00.007-10:00

Okay, so normally I don't like to post these things because it seems mean to glorify someone's mishap, but as I watched this video over and over again, I thought it would be unfair if I just kept it to myself (plus it's already on youtube and facebook).

This is my good friend Tori apparently in the backroom of her working place.

Stop Feeding Your Fat Face

2009-03-25T12:29:00.003-10:00

So a while ago one of my friends had lost a lot of weight. I mean, noticeable weight. In a completely straight kind of way, I would say that he looked pretty darn good (I wouldn't go as far as to say he was handsome, but you know what I mean). So after complimenting him I asked him what the secret to his weight loss was. He simply replied, "It's call the stop-feeding-my-fat-face diet". So simple yet so hard. It kind of reminds me of a sketch that I saw on my friend John Au's blog about not spending more than you have. But I digress.

Six weeks ago I started this fitness program called Boot Camp (I didn't originate it, I started attending it). There was this guy at our church who does fitness training and he approached me with a proposal to start a fitness program at our church. Of course he came to me because I am the fittest pastor at Hope Chapel (or maybe because I'm the sports director) with a plan to get guys into shape. At first I was skeptical because I hear many pitches from people who have ideas and enthusiasm, but based on a recommendation from Rob McWilliams, another pastor on staff who does the program in town, I decided to hear him out and hear his proposal.

I must say, when I met with Marty, I was impressed at his vision and passion. He firmly believes that health should be one of our top priorities (number one is God, number two or three is fitness) because we can't serve God if we're dead. I like the way he thinks.

So with that we started Boot Camp. It's a six-week fitness program designed to help us get in shape. Our first week we took measurements to see what we're starting with. This was my starting fitness reading:

Starting weigh-in

The numbers you really want to look at are the fat weight (mine was 70.8 pounds), the lean weight (149.2 pounds) and the number circled on the top (50). According to Marty you want around 20 pounds of fat on you so if you do the math 70-20=50. That means I could stand to lose 50 pounds of fat. That's a lot of fat that I'm carrying around (it's about half of Ted for goodness sake!). Well that's why I'm in Boot Camp I guess.

So over the six weeks it's been tough. People ask what a typical class is like and here's what we do. We do 40 minutes of calisthenics followed by 20 or so minutes of running (so an hour total) twice a week. We don't use weights but rather just use our own body weight (as Marty is fond of saying, "you brought it in here, you lift it!).

The calisthenics consist of various non-stop exercises. And by "non-stop" I mean there isn't rest time between. It's this, followed by this, followed by that for 40 minutes. He also does that military type counting where they go "one-two-three-ONE, one-two-three-TWO, one-two-three-THREE, etc" so every count is really doubled. So if we do 25 jumping jacks it's really like doing 50 of them.

So last night we did 25 jumping jacks (in reality 50), followed by 25 push-ups (in reality 50), followed by 25 more jumping jacks (you get the idea), then 25 more push-ups (on our knuckles), then 25 more jumping jacks, then 30 crunches, then 20 diamond push-ups and on and on for 40 minutes.

I must say the class is definitely not getting easier, but it is getting more manageable. I mean let's be honest, I wasn't in very good shape to begin with and the first night I couldn't even do the running portion. I literally had to lie down in the wet parking lot because I was so out of breath. I could probably do only 30% of the exercise portion as well. I thought I was going to die and don't get me started on the pain I felt the next morning. And to top it all off, Carl decided he would mention my little mishap to the congregation during his sermon (but God is a good God and the very next week Carl was the one throwing up on the side of the road...hee hee).

But the good news is that I could gradually feel my strength and wind improve. I would say I can almost do 60% of the exercises (I'm still probably a little behind the class average but I'm still trying hard) and I can at least finish the run.

The fun thing is seeing improvements from everyone. Mikey, Carl, Dural, Grant, Clinton and my brother are all in the class so it's really fun and motivating (because no one wants to quit first). I think we're all signing up for the next six weeks as well.

So do you want to see the results of the last six weeks of pain?

After the first session

So after the first six weeks I've lost about 10 pounds (I've gotten as much as 13 pounds down but I figured much of that was water weight) and my fat weight went from 70.8 to 55.7 a loss of about 15 pounds of fat. I gained around 5 pounds of lean weight which is good too. So now I only need to drop another 35 pounds of fat weight. I'll let you know how I do after the next six weeks. If only I could figure out how to "stop-feeding-my-fat-face" I'd be perfect!

So Hard, Praying to Jesus

2009-03-17T15:53:00.004-10:00

I'm blessed. So much of the time when I'm complaining for feeling sorry for myself (which isn't often, although Keao may disagree) I remind myself that I'm blessed. I have a job that I love and a wife that I love even more. Who could ask for anything more?

Actually, for all the great parts of my job, there are also parts of my job that aren't too fun. My job requires flexibility and the hours are all over the place. This makes planning "date nights" hard because so many nights are taken up with meetings or other church related outings. So whenever I do complain about my job to Keao, she'll often reply, "so hard, praying to Jesus".

Of course being a pastor is very rewarding as well. In my line of work I get to meet some really great people and I have made some really great friends all over the world. But as you may know, many times, it's the small things that mean the most to people. A phone call here or a kind word there can go a long way.

Last Saturday was Jasen's birthday. Jasen came to our church a few years ago because he saw the big Hope Chapel banner hanging on the fence on the highway and decided to check it out. He came to my MiniChurch on the recommendation of one of his friends and literally just showed up one night. He didn't know anyone, but showed up anyway. He's been my friend ever since.

But back to last Saturday. It was his birthday so I texted him in the morning to wish him a happy birthday and ask him if he had any plans. He replied "no" so I decided to see if I could throw him a little impromptu party. I texted a bunch of his friends and we met up at California Pizza Kitchen ASAP in Kailua.

That's the birthday boy with the balloon

Natalie, Abby and John help celebrate

Even Rachel and Steve made a rare appearance

The great thing about church are all the relationships that are formed. I can honestly say that without church (or more accurately God) I probably wouldn't be friends with 90% of the people that I'm friends with now. Not to say that they're terrible people or that I'm special or anything like that, but realistically we just wouldn't be in the same circles. We wouldn't have too much in common. That's the beauty of it all. Our common link, God, places us together as a family and help foster these relationships.

And relationships are what it's all about. When Jasen got to CPK ASAP, the first thing he said when he saw all of us was "hey, all of my friends are here". Even though it probably wasn't a big deal to us, it was huge for him. Being there with his friends was the gift.

Liz and Haley share in the celebration

Jasen thinking, "gee, I'm so special"

Had to put this in because we're so cute!

When I first agreed to take over Ignite (our singles and couples ministry), one of the conditions I set down was that God would give me a clear mission. After much prayer I really believe that God told me to connect people to him and to connect them to each other. That's what drives me in my ministry. If I can do that, I believe that we'll see growth and we'll see success.

Seeing Jasen light up when he saw his friends gathering to celebrate his birthday showed me that we're what we're supposed to. Here's the text he sent to us later that night, "Thank you all for hanging out with me and making this day special and memorable. I appreciate all of you in my life. Take care and God bless." That's why I'm blessed.

Bathroom Comics III

2009-03-11T10:50:00.003-10:00

So with all the bad news in the news lately, I decided it was time for another segments of Bathroom Comics (here are the first and second). For those of you new to the blog, these are simply comics that I found funny on my daily calendar that's in my bathroom. There are actually two daily comic calendars but all of these came from Rubes. I hope they brighten your day.

Sometimes life's lessons suck

I'm not sure how many of you will get this. I think only a true Beatles fan will

So true! That's why I never get any better

How Far is Too Far?

2009-03-11T10:07:00.002-10:00

There has been some uproar here lately over HB 444 (the civil unions bill), violence and Saturday Night Live. SNL you ask? That lovable show that brought us Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, Mike Myers and many other comedic stars? Yup. You read that right. Apparently last Saturday SNL did a sketch with Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson that didn't exactly portray Hawaii in the most positive light. If you missed it, you can watch it here.

In the last two days I have read 2 blogs about it (WWD and Quarterlife Cafe) and an article in the newspaper. Now as someone who has worked in the travel industry for the last 13 years I think I may have some insight to this sketch.

I can honestly say that most of the people that I have worked with genuinely enjoy working in that industry. It is important to note though that it is our number one industry and whether you want to admit it or not, we need tourists to come to Hawaii.

Over the last 13 years, I have had the pleasure of working with some outstanding people and some not so outstanding people. I also met some of the nicest visitors and some downright unhappy ones. But overall, I really enjoyed my time with Pleasant Holidays.

So what do I think of the sketch? I think they say what everyone has thought from time to time. Some of their comments are brutally accurate but not all of them. Did they go to far? Maybe but probably not. As one blogger mentioned, it is SNL and that's what they do. It's not like it's CNN. They're trying to poke fun at Hawaii.

I do think though, that in the midst of everything else that's going on in our state, this sketch is the least of our worries. I can't see anyone watching SNL and saying, "gee, based on that sketch, I'm canceling my trip to paradise." Just can't see it.

A Girl's Best Friend

2009-03-09T21:30:00.007-10:00

Last year our good friend Tricia, who works for Campus Crusade for Christ, went on a trip to China. She was going to be gone for several weeks and was worried because she needed someone to watch over her dog Jordan. Of course, Keao and I are suckers for dogs, especially one as cute as Jordan so we agreed to dog-sit Jordan for the few weeks. Now, if you know anything about me, dogs are not meant to be indoors so my only rule to dog-sitting was that Jordan could not come inside the house. Well I guess Tricia was getting a little desperate because surprisingly she agreed.

After those few weeks I must admit, I did grow a little attached to Jordan and I was sorry to see her go. I was even more saddened to hear that because she was outdoors the whole time she developed some sort of skin rash.

Fast forward to this year. After my brother moved out, Tricia moved in and became our roommate. This cheered my heart because once again I would be able to see cute Jordan (and Tricia too). Of course, my "no dogs in the house" rule still stood and Jordan quickly made herself at home on my patio.

Now Tricia had Jordan since she was 18 or 19 and Jordan has been all over the country with Tricia. They were tight. Jordan was a constant, loyal, loving companion. But like everything else, Jordan was getting older. She was slowing down. She no longer had the same spring in her step. By the time Tricia and Jordan moved in with us Jordan was already sick with an inoperable tumor and she was slowly bleeding internally. The vet said that it wouldn't necessarily be painful for Jordan, but there wasn't much they could do. The nights were cold and we offered to break our rule and let Jordan sleep indoors at night. Jordan was getting weaker by the day.

You know, Tricia and Jordan moved in just over two weeks ago and in that short while Jordan really took a liking to me. Every time I would go outside she would get up and follow me around. Sometimes I would go to the front yard and she would come to the front and lie down and just watch whatever I was doing. The last few days though were different. Jordan was so weak she wouldn't stand up anymore. Her breathing became labored and even moving seemed like a chore. Instead she would just lie there and follow me around with her eyes.

This morning, when Tricia went outside to check on Jordan, she noticed that Jordan had thrown up again. After much consideration Tricia made one of the hardest decisions of her life. She decided that it was time to let Jordan go. She decided to put Jordan down.

There's a reason that dogs are known as man's best friend. Dogs are loyal. They love unconditionally. They are always there when you're feeling down. They cheer you up. Jordan was no different.

After spending all morning outside with Jordan, Tricia and Keao drove together to the vet. I wasn't there, but Keao told me that everything went about as good as they could. Tricia mentioned how God had his hand in it. You see, the vet didn't have to put Jordan to sleep. Jordan quietly passed away in the vet's office. Tricia got to spend an entire morning with Jordan and she got to be there when she passed away. Of course, I'm sure Tricia would rather have Jordan back, but if she had to go, this was probably the best anyone could have hoped for.

The last time I would get to see Jordan

1997-2009

Maui, Oh Maui

2009-02-20T18:29:00.004-10:00

As you may know Keao is from the Big Island but went to school on Oahu. She left Honokaa in the 7th grade and attended Kamehameha Schools until she graduated from High School. This, of course, meant she boarded and live with the other outer island girls. One of her best friends during this time was a sweet Maui girl named Kelii. Kelii has since left the islands and moved to North Carolina but she comes back to visit from time to time. So right after the Great Aloha Run (and I literally mean right after) Keao and I hurried home to shower pack and then head to the airport. We had a 12:44pm flight to catch and we were both exhausted from waking up at 4am, running 8.15 miles and rushing to the airport. We did make our flight pretty easily but by the time we arrived on Maui we were both starving and wanting food badly! Luckily for us there was a Ruby's Diner in Kahului.

The entrance to our heavenly meal

Ruby's Diner is a 40's style diner that specializes in burgers, fries and shakes. They also have the waiters and waitresses dress up like they did back then (or at least what I imagined they wore back then). Because we figured that we ran enough calories off in the morning, we decided to treat ourselves to whatever we wanted to eat.

Keao was so hungry she couldn't even look at the menu (or camera)

She opted for a peanut butter cup shake which was so huge they brought out the extra in another cup!

I opted for the sliders and rings (which were perfect even though there were only five of them)

After lunch we took a nap and met up with Kelii and her family in Wailuku. We hung out with them for a bit and got ready for our big adventure to the Maui Ocean Center the next day.

The Maui Ocean Center is an aquarium that sits right next to Maalaea Harbor. Probably the thing it's most famous for is its shark tunnel. That is, there's a large tunnel in the middle of the tank so you can watch the sharks and rays swim above you. There are also a lot of other fish and mammal displays as well.

The large sign beckons you to come on in

One of the first tanks had a bunch of flounders which was cool because they have both eyes on the same side of their heads

This is what they look like from above

This is me holding the water back (Moses style!)

Although it's not a petting zoo, the shark lagoon is a popular draw

These are called hammerheads for very obvious reasons

Keao and Kelii before the fun began

There is a section at the center completely devoted to Hawaii's official marine mammal the Humpback whale. Lahaina used to be the whaling capital of the Pacific because the whales come to give birth right off the shores of Maui every winter. So because of their importance to our history and our tourism industry when the whales come to town people from all over the world come to look and study them.

One of the interactive displays in the center focuses on whalesongs. Keao, ever the scientist, wanted to see if she could one day communicate with the huge beasts. How'd she do? I'll just let the video explain.

Pretty good eh? After that stunning display of talent, we saw more sharks and a few rays.

These guys had their own special tank

This is a ray swimming away

If you were being eaten by a ray, this would be the last thing you would see

After we left the Maui Ocean Center we were all pretty starving. Of course we looked for some lunch, but dessert called us first and we couldn't resist.

Hula Cookies and Ice Cream makes an ice cream sandwich with what else but their own cookies and ice cream

Keao and I split a scoop of chocolate between two chocolate chip cookies

After dessert we decided to get some real food and we drove over to Kihei to go to Da Kitchen. This is one of Kelii's favorite spots and she highly recommended it.

Notice it's "local and Hawaiian" style food

Who do you think they modeled the wall art after?

Our Hawaiian plate was definitely enough for two

Of course you can't go to Maui without going to the beach can you? So after lunch we headed down toward Wailea to hit the beach. By hit the beach, I mean Keao and the girls all went into the water while I took a nap on the sand. I could only nap for a few minutes because it was so darn cold. I can't imagine how crazy those girls were since I was cold on the beach they must have been colder in the water.

See how cold they look?

After the beach we headed back to Wailuku and played a quick game of Farkle (hot dice). Then it was more eating. As this would be our last meal on Maui and no one wanted to make a decision Nani (Kelii's sister) suggested we eat a food court. Since no one objected we drove down to the food court. Now I'm not saying that Maui doesn't have good food courts, but this one had four eateries. Yup, four. It had an L & L, a Bale Sandwiches, an Aloha Grill (which served up burgers and whatnot) and Fernando's (Mexican). Since I had burgers the day before and we have Bale and L & L's everywhere I opted for the Mexican. I kind of felt like a traitor not eating at La Bamba's but what are you gonna do?

The Kau Kau Four Court

Fernando's from a distance

I had the alpastor sandwich

The food was pretty filling and tasty. I had an alpastor sandwich which is kind of like having a Portuguese sausage sandwich except it's, you know, Mexican. Overall it was really filling considering it came from a fast food Mexican place.

After all that we finished up and headed back to Oahu. It was a short trip, but a fun-filled memorable one nonetheless.

Top 10,000 Ain't Bad

2009-02-18T16:44:00.002-10:00

Last Monday was President's Day. For the past 25 years, President's Day in Hawaii meant the annual Great Aloha Run. The 8.15 mile course starts at Aloha Tower Marketplace and goes along Ala Moana Blvd, under the airport viaduct and finishes at Aloha Stadium.

Keao and I ran (and I use the verb rather loosely) the race a few years ago and a bunch of our friends wanted to run it as well so we decided to put a group together.

Some of us brave the cold, dark morning

The race officially starts at 7:00am, but with some 20,000 runners, walkers, strollers and wheelchairs we didn't hit the start line until around 25 minutes after 7. Of course this is on top of waking up at 4:30am to get to Aloha Stadium where we parked and caught a ride to Nuuanu. Once we got to Nuuanu we met up with our friend Diedre and her running group to stretch out and get loose. This was at 6:10 an our friend Mr. Sun wasn't even up yet.

Keao and I inching ever closer to the start line (note we're still smiling)

Dural's confused because that couple behind him are running "three-legged" style

Next to the Honolulu Marathon, the Great Aloha Run is Hawaii's premiere running event. This year being the 25th anniversary made it even more special. They announced that over 20,000 signed up to run (although I'm sure there were drop outs). Of course there was lots of people there and lots of fanfare.

We're almost to the start line

As you run the route there are people cheering you everywhere. There were a few marching bands, cheerleaders and even a taiko band after mile 5. And as you would expect people run at different paces. That meant that as we were jogging we had to dodge, bob and weave our way through the crowd.

Keao had been running and working out for a few months so understandably she's in much better shape than I am. My goal was to jog as far as I can and then jog/walk the rest of the way. We decided that we would try to jog two miles first (as I have not really been training too hard). I'm happy to say that I did make it the first two miles and even did one more! Who would've thought that I could jog three straight miles?

Of course the first five miles are fairly easy because it's so flat. The second half of the run is slightly more difficult because there are inclines and declines. Plus, by the time you exit under the airport viaduct the sun is now burning harshly and brightly.

Can you see Aloha Stadium in the background (hint: it's to the right of those white buildings)?

Still smiling just a little more tired and sweaty!

As you get closer to the stadium everyone gets more excited to be finished. There is cheering and loud music. Kids line the sides with signs meant to encourage the runners. Unfortunately they make you go halfway around the stadium, which seems a little cruel to me, before you run down the tunnel and onto the field. At this point there are tons of people cheering and they put you on the Jumbotron. After that they give you a t-shirt, donuts, bananas and all the water you want. No matter how long it takes you, you've just finished the 8.15 mile Great Aloha Run!

I'm still smiling on the outside, but inside I'm exhausted

The different colors indicate where you think you will finish (yellow is faster than green which is faster than pink)

Despite making some of the people in this group wait an hour for us to finish, we're all still smiling!

So where did we finish? According to the unofficial results Keao and I finished in 9098th and 9097th place respectively. We had the same time of 2:02:41. This was a little disappointing since the last time we ran we finished around 15 minutes faster but it was probably my fault for being lazy and not training. Roughly this equates to 15 minute miles over the course of the run. Not great but not too bad either.

If you're interested in running with us next year you can sign up at www.greataloharun.com. Hope to see you there!

Jumbo Deal for Jumbo Men

2009-02-18T16:07:00.002-10:00

So last month Jack in the Box had a special meal. Every once in a while Jack in the Box comes out with these ridiculous deals that try to lure weaker-souled men to their stores. Unfortunately for me, I am a sucker for gimmicks (see: weak-soul) and I bit hook, line and sinker.

The premise, according to the commercials, was Jack trying to do his part to help stimulate the economy. He therefore created his "Jumbo Deal". A Jumbo Deal consists of a Jumbo Jack, a small french fries and 2 tacos. Then to top it all off, it was only $2.99! You read that right, it was under $3. Thus the challenge was born. Who could eat more Jumbo Deals than anyone else?

There it is in all its glory (well, the drink was extra)

So we got in line and took the challenge head on! At first there were only six of us competing. John-John (who initially laid the challenge down) was conveniently absent due to a late night at work. Some of the more ambitious competitors ordered two "deals" right off the bat while other more unsure ones only ordered one hoping they would have enough room for a second (or maybe even a third).

No use in playing around, JC lined his two "deals" up

Everyone who participated had their own strategy and theory. Some felt they should eat the tacos first while others thought the french fries would slow them down so they tackled them first.

If one grease filled taco isn't enough there are three more waiting for you

Slowly it became evident that this was a lot of food. Your truly was one of those in the game that only managed to finish one "deal". Of the eventual seven competitors four finished two "deals" and the other three wisely stopped at one. An asterisk may have to go by John-John's name though since after he finished his two, he also bought an order of the mini-churros (although he did share them with the rest of us).

If that face doesn't say it all I don't know what will

JC about half way through and still smiling

Almost done, just a few more fries left

And we're done...just gotta clean up the mess

So the final results look like this:

1 Jumbo Deal eaten: Scott, Mike and Jasen
2 Jumbo Deals eaten: Mikey, JC, John-John and Dural
Something healthy like a salad: Liz

I think next time we do this we'll need to add in a speed factor. Join us next time as we see who can eat a dozen Taco Bell tacos the quickest!

Survival of the Fittest

2009-01-26T11:29:00.005-10:00

Every now and then I get motivated. It usually doesn't last long, but when the feeling comes it can sometimes last over a week! Maybe two. Of course everyone gets motivated at the start of a new year. It just seems fitting that a new year brings a new start and a new chance to start fresh. One of my new year resolutions (pretty much every year) is to get more active and try to lose weight (sound familiar anyone?). So one of the ways that I like to stay active is playing various sports with a bunch of my friends.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the most athletic person in the world, but I do enjoy playing different sports and hanging out. This past Saturday a bunch of us went to Maunawili Valley Park for a night of active sports and a BBQ. We started playing Ultimate Frisbee which transitioned to Kickball then Flag Football, Basketball and then Sham Battle.

Of all the games we played that day the Flag Football was the most intense. We had both men and women playing and from time to time we even had a ringer of the canine variety.

Despite brandishing the red flags Cannon was really on his own team

The great thing about Flag Football is that anyone can play. It doesn't matter if you're male or female. In fact many times it's more advantageous to be a woman because sometimes they're quicker and can get open more. Case in point, Jennifer may have caught the most balls on Saturday. She definitely caught everything that came her way.

This was common sight all afternoon

Of course that's not to say that the action wasn't fast and intense. It was quite the opposite. Both teams wanted to win badly and they played their hearts out. Everyone played with heart and good sportsmanship.

He may have dropped the ball and been out of bounds, but Paul showed a lot of heart that day

This wasn't nearly as bad as it looked

This was

It's all about getting the flag no matter what

Or not

Of course it wasn't all sports all night long. We did bring a grill and cooked up some steaks and burgers. Overall it was an excellent night filled with good weather, great food and fantastic friends. Make sure you make plans to come out to our next sports night!

Abby and Keao show a quick smile

John and Paul pose for the camera

To view the rest of the pictures from our evening click here.

Rain, Rain Go Away

2008-12-30T22:46:00.002-10:00

So this is a first for us. After going on these golf trip for the past 7 years or so we may come back to Honolulu without playing a round of golf. The rain, which I thought had blown over from the Big Island to Oahu, has apparently stuck around and on Sunday Mike, Ted and John got rained out. We took a break on Monday to visit the east side and today we drove all the way to Big Island Country Club only to sit in the clubhouse for half an hour and then call it quits. We determined that even though we came here specifically to play golf, we would rather not play and be comfortable as opposed to play in the rain and be cold, wet and miserable. To make matters even worse, I didn't even bring a rain jacket. I only had a sweatshirt (which is possibly the least rain resistant garment you can have other than a terry cloth bath robe).

This is what we saw as we entered the golf course parking lot

It was so cloudy you couldn't even see the mountains

Notice the huge puddles (water hazards?) on the driving range?

So what do you do when you go on a golf trip and the weather doesn't cooperate? Well if you're us, we just headed back to Waimea and played cards in Starbucks for awhile. Yeah, yeah, I know. We didn't have to come all the way to the Big Island just to do this, but let's face it, would we have done this if we were in Kaneohe?

Couldn't we have done this at home?

So for the rest of the day, we just hung around the Waimea house and played video games, napped and watched TV. All in all it was a great afternoon. Very relaxing and very mellow (after all, in the words of my father-in-law, this is the Big Island).

Speaking of which, we later met up with my father-in-law for dinner. We went to a little joint called Huli Sue's that I read about several years ago, but just never got around to going to. Honestly, I wished we waited a little longer. The food was pretty mediocre at best. For a BBQ joint, the pork ribs and the brisket was very tough and the short ribs were tender but lacked in flavor. They did offer 4 types of sauce to dip them in but in my humble opinion they were all too sweet for my liking. I don't think we'll be going there again anytime soon.

Purveyors of Fine Grindz may be a slight exaggeration

The famous corn pudding in the upper left was by far the best thing on the plate

Mike's plate of pork ribs and short ribs

That's my father-in-law behind Ted

A Quick Side Trip to Hilo

2008-12-30T16:12:00.006-10:00

When we normally do these golf trip they usually last four days and we play three rounds of golf. One day we set aside for sightseeing and just general relaxing. On this particular day we decided to visit Ted's parents in Honomu but before we met up with them we cruised around Hilo town.

Our first stop in Hilo was Two Ladies' Kitchen. They are famous for their homemade mochi and manju. Mochi is a very popular food around New Years so this place was packed and they also mentioned that they were not taking any custom orders so whatever you saw you could buy. If you didn't see it on the counter it wasn't for sale.

A simple sign lets people know they've arrived

The variety pack (Mike already took and ate his)

Ted sampling a sweet potato mochi

After we grabbed our omiyage to take home to the grandparents we proceeded to Ken's Pancake House. It's a Hilo landmark that reminds me of Hilo's version of Zippy's. The food's okay but it's popular because of their many menu selections and they're the only place open for 24 hours for miles around.

We met up with Nalani (who was one of the bridesmaids in Keao's wedding party) since she was in Hilo town to take her dad to the doctor. It's always fun coming to the Big Island because we get to see people that we don't normally see.

Here's almost half of our wedding party (sans John-John who is taking the picture)

After lunch we headed up to Ted's parent's house in Honomu. Ted's parents retired to the Big Island some 6 or 7 years ago, but it seems like they're busier now than they were when they were both working! They have become farmers and own a nice chunk of land up in Honomu. They took us up to the farm and showed us what they've accomplished. Let me tell you, they accomplished quite a bit. Ted's dad, Uncle Kenji, kept pointing here and there and saying, "Aunty Faith and I put this up...took us two days (or a month or however long)". And he wasn't just pointing at small stuff. He was pointing at walls and warehouses! I know their plan is to eventually move to the farm as he is currently designing their home right now.

Ted with his parents, check out the view they'll have from their house!

This is the building Ted's parents put up...took about a month

Here's Ted by the stream that runs through the farm

Of course, I had to get into the farming lifestyle so they let me help around the place (and by help around the place I mean sit on some farm-type equipment).

Nothing runs like a Deere...too bad I couldn't take it for a spin

They did let me drive this 4x4 golf cart on steroids

It's just too bad I can't hear you

Even though we did get to putz around the place, most of our time there was spent feeding the spiders. Ted and Mike would catch grasshoppers to feed them and then use chopsticks to put them in the webs. I must say it is amazing to see how quickly the spiders can wrap up its prey. I was marveling about this my wife (who is from the Big Island) and all she could respond with was *sigh* "You city boys...". Little does she know I'm really from the country. I'm just pretending to be impressed by the spiders (from a very safe distance).

Can you see the huge spider in the upper left corner?

Solimene's in Kamuela

2008-12-30T15:34:00.003-10:00

While we were at Frank and Jen's wedding on Saturday we ran into some friends of ours (that also got married last month) and the new bridegroom remarked that he liked our Christmas card and our accompanying newsletter. He said he was jealous because it seemed like I traveled a lot during the past year. And while it is true that I got have been blessed enough to go on a few trips this is the last one of 2008. I am up here on the Big Island with a few of the guys in my wedding party.

They actually arrived before me to play a round of golf on Sunday and because of church (they're all heathens) I arrived a little later in the afternoon. I got there just in time for dinner and so we tried a place called Solimene's because John-John's friend owned the place. Now in general, I'm not very fond of Italian places but being the team player that I am, I agreed to eat with them.

They had paninis, which I do like, but unfortunately for me, they only have them during lunch so no luck there. Mike and Ted split a large meat lover's pizza and I settled for a sausage and pepper calzone. The calzone had a light soft crust and it came with a large dish of marinara sauce for dipping. Also, since John-John knows the owner, he hooked us up with tiramisu for dessert. Overall, it was an enjoyable evening with acceptable food.

Solimene's in Waimea Shopping Center

For the two meat lovers, Mike and Ted's pizza

My calzone with the large dish of marinara sauce

A close-up view of the sausage and peppers

And of course, a large slice of tiramisu for dessert

Here Comes the Bride part 8

2008-12-30T14:57:00.002-10:00

I'm not sure how many weddings we've gone to this year, but I swear it's been like 8 or 9 of them. I know I had 6 during the summer alone and there must have been at least 3 or 4 more spread out through the rest of the year so by my count we've been to a helluva lot of weddings this year. With that said, last Saturday we went to our final wedding of 2008.

Who got married you ask? Well none other than our Jr. High pastor Frank Cabacungan III. It was a lovely wedding at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. He finally married his long-time girlfriend of eight years Jennifer Davis. It was a semi-formal to formal affair so a bunch of us got all dressed up in our suits and partied like it was the last wedding of 2008.

That's Youth pastor Tom Landeza on the far left

At the Crystal Chapel at the Hilton Hawaiian Village

The happy couple during the reception

All of the male staff pastors dressed up

But anyway, congratulations Frank and Jen! Here's to a wonderful life together!

Leapin' Lizards!

2008-12-30T09:05:00.005-10:00

So last weekend was a really busy one. I thought things were supposed to slow down after Christmas, but the Saturday immediately following Christmas was probably the busiest Saturday of the month. It was supposed to start with breakfast with my sister and Kristy Hirata, but being that the power went out it got canceled. So instead we substituted with breakfast with two couples from our MiniChurch (the Garland's and the Whiteley's) and Mikey since we still had our trusty new gas range (but the oven is still broken). We did have a great time playing "telephone pictionary" (remind me to tell my wife was an amazing artist she is) and shared quite a few laughs. Who says you need power for fun?

Then we had to go to our niece Lauren's second birthday party (we also had a wedding later on in the evening). It was held at Leapin' Lizards, which is a huge warehouse full of various bouncy houses. So we get there and it's slightly rainy and we arrive on time with Aliya (our friend's daughter) and there are a bunch of kids ready to hit the bouncy houses. Of course there are rules to follow the first and most important being: don't run. Umm, yeah, that lasted about a second and a half. As soon as the doors opened, the kids immediately ran in and paid no attention to the no running rule. I mean it's like they never even heard it at all. *sigh* I guess not all the kids could read or listen.

Here's the birthday girl in the jousting ring (that's what the kid behind her is holding)

Here's Aliya going down the toddler slide

Not all the houses were for kids though. In fact, one side of the warehouse was set aside for adult or older children houses.

Here's Keao testing out the bigger slide

After a while, even the little ones went by themselves

It was neat to see how the kids needed us in the beginning, but soon enough when we got too tired they continued on by themselves. They would climb up the stairs and slide down over and over and over again. Thank goodness they didn't need us because they had much more stamina then us. We did have fun bouncing with them in the jousting ring and volleyball court.

Keao and Lauren sharing a moment of fun

Uncontrollable bouncing + hard heads = crying babies

Unfortunately it wasn't all fun and games. Poor Aliya got clobbered on one of the slides because she was coming down and a boy was trying to climb up the slide and they collided (even though we told him repeatedly to use the stairs). A little later Aliya and Lauren bonked heads while they were bouncing. Aliya was very cute and told me that she hit Lauren's head. She then promptly went over to Lauren and apologized. They're still friends.

Even mommy got in on the action

Oversized boxing gloves make good chairs too

Sisters, sisters...

Of course, what's a birthday party without cake and ice cream. After bouncing for an hour and a half, we went upstairs to the party room for pizza, cake and ice cream. Lauren sat all by herself at the center of everyone and ate her pizza. Then with a little help from mom she blew out the candles.

Mine, all mine!

Make a wish!

Not only the birthday girl can have all the fun

If You See Me in December

2008-12-29T23:27:00.002-10:00

Okay, so a lot went on this past month, way too much to try to catch up and devote a blog entry to each event. So for this entry, I'm going to try to give you some highlights of my last month. Actually, I'm going to mostly try to do it with pictures and I'll give you a very short description. I'll also try to give more detailed entries to the more recent events when they need it. But without further ado, here's the last month or so.

We say goodbye to Kevin

This one is actually kind of funny because Kevin told us he was going to Germany for a few years with the Air Force so we threw him a going away party. Then the next thing we know, he comes to church the weekend after he was supposed to have left and not only that, but he's no longer going to Germany but instead he's going to Beale AFB in Northern California. We think he did it just for the party and the sympathy.

Mikey gets close to the Mayor

On the last Sunday of November, our church helped out in the Windward City Lights celebration. Not one to miss an opportunity, Mikey manages to get past security and take this candid photo with Mayor Mufi Hannemann.

Not wanting to be outdone I take a picture with the Mayor and Scotty Friel

Me and Coach Mack

On the Tuesday before the last home game, we went to the Coach the Coach Show at the Willows. Coach Mack bought a round of beer for everyone in the room. Unfortunately we went on to lose our home finale against Cincinnati.

Some of my coworkers from Pleasant Holidays

Christmas time brings Christmas dinners, so here are some of my kooky coworkers from Pleasant Holidays. We were treated to a nice dinner at Assagio's in Ala Moana Shopping Center. I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be working there, so this may have been my last Christmas dinner with them (God willing...j/k).

The Worden's at Aloha Stadium

Despite the loss at home, the Warriors were still eligible for the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl. We had a super fun time at the tailgate and our mood certainly soured on Christmas Eve as the game progressed. Unfortunately for us the game was really over by the second quarter (yes, it really was that bad).

Even Santa came out to play (and lead the band for a few songs)

We saw this a lot since they ran like this every time Notre Dame scored

See I told you it was that bad!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

2008-12-29T08:17:00.002-10:00

I am always amazed at how children see the world. When they are babies, they look to us for encouragement and security. When get a little older, they look to us for guidance and advice. However, many times, when left to their own devices, they will do the right thing.

My wife, Keao, does the Children's Church Choir at our church and she is very good at it. She has a way of communicating with them and getting them to understand that they are not just performing, but they are singing to the Lord. It's not just music, it's worship. The children range from 5 year-olds all the way up to 11 or so and if you remember being a kid, the difference between being 5 and 11 is huge. There are differences in maturities and education. You can't necessarily communicate with them the same. The little ones need more direction and sometimes more attention.

The Children's Church Choir before their Christmas performance

So one practice, one of the little ones gets sad all of a sudden. She slowly separates herself from the group and goes to the side of the stage. I asked her is she was okay and of course she nodded yes. Thinking she was probably fine, I let her go. Then one of the older girl asks her what's wrong. She replies, "Nothing. Sometimes I just like sitting by myself." Again, if I handled this situation I would have listened to her and let her be. But the older girl sensing something was wrong gently put her arm around her and comforted her. She stayed with her until she cheered up. Later, one of the other little ones kept trying to find out what was wrong. Finally the first girl gave in and told her but under one condition...that she wouldn't tell anyone else. Of course, kids being kids, she turned around and told me. Hee hee. Even though she squealed, she did do a good thing. She helped her friend out and helped us to solve the problem.

Got time for another quick story? As were we sitting between services, Keao made breakfast for everyone (although I did make the eggs which Lainey proclaimed were "the best eggs ever!" Sorry Keao, even though you made everything else, my eggs trumped them all). After they ate they started to play with each other and just enjoy being kids. This one girl, Tiffany, just started cleaning up. Without being told! I was so impressed at her manners and her thoughtfulness. I think she's quickly becoming one of my favorites (although I use that term rather loosely because I have tons of favorites). Again, I marvel at children doing the right thing even without being told. If all of the children were like them, I think we'd be in good hands.

Same kids, just being sillier

Sheraton Hawaii Bowl Prediction

2008-12-15T18:11:00.003-10:00

Okay, so I know it's been a while since I've posted (why do so many of my posts seem to start out this way?) but I've been on vacation and there hasn't been anything really exciting during my vacation (I got new screens, a new stove and hopefully my door will be fixed soon). If Keao will give me some pics from this past weekend's Children's Church choir's performance I'll write some little observations on what I learned from the kids. But anyway, I digress.

I know it's a little early to make a prediction on the Hawaii Bowl, but this dude Ryan Parker has already made one through a song he wrote (or parodied). It's called Charlie Weis Island. Have a listen. It's quite enjoyable.

PS-less than 10 days until Christmas!

Everybody Scream, Everybody Scream in our Town of Halloween

2008-11-11T14:08:00.002-10:00

Halloween, a holiday based on trying to get as much candy as you can all the while dressing up so no one can see what a greedy glutton you are. The more I think about it, the more I think Halloween is really for sneaky freeloaders. I mean, it's not like Christmas where you're expected to give a gift in return when someone gives you a gift. You really don't need to do anything at all (except maybe dress up and really, you don't even need to do that all the time) to get candy except say the magic phrase, "trick or treat". Of course there is a chance that you may tricked, but in my thirty some-odd years of life, I have never seen a trick played out on someone, so I would say your chances of getting candy are pretty good.

This year, since Halloween fell on a Friday night we decided to come to church in costume and then go bowling in costume. Unfortunately for us, some people are lame and not everyone dressed up. The bowling part was really fun though. It was neat to see people roll balls down the lanes in costume. Here are some pictures from the night:

I guess if you're not really Japanese this is the next best thing (Tricia and Keao)

John is God's gift to women and Tiffany happens to be a woman (I wonder if she enjoyed the gift?)

Kelli, the forest queen, with her Jack 'o Lantern, Rob

Angry Grant, James dressed up as who-knows-what and Jasen didn't even try

It's a little early, but here's Mrs. Dina Claus and Mr. George Claus

Here's Markis on his high horse and Rob and Kelli again

Joy, the sunburned tourist, is sitting next to Matt (but I keep forgetting who he's supposed to be)

Finally here I am with my costume that I bought from a street vendor next to Battery Park in New York and some radio DJ dressed as Mayor Hannemann

Overall, it was a great night at Aiea Bowl. The costumes were fun and the bowling was even better. Next year we'll see if we can get even more people to dress out.

To view the rest of the pictures from the night click here.

You Don't Look a Day Over 60!

2008-10-28T15:10:00.003-10:00

So much has been made about my brother and I. What I mean by this is that Stanton and I are full brothers but we don't look or act alike. In fact, despite having the same last name and the same parents and we live in the same house and work at the same place (you get the picture) many people never put it together that we're related. Then when they find out that we're brothers they often ask us which brother is older. You see, Stanton dresses much hipper than I do and he also is smaller (petite?) so many people assume that he's the younger brother. It usually comes as a shock to them that he is indeed the older brother.

This is actually not that big of a deal, but it does cause some gentle ribbing amongst us (what's funnier is one of our friend's kids asked why I'm Japanese and Stanton's not). So yesterday I got some funny news in the mail. It wasn't addressed to me but hopefully it will once and all end the debate of who is older.

This letter came in the mail yesterday

No big deal you say? You get junk mail all the time? Sure that may be true, but look who the letter is from! It's from the AARP! In case you don't know, the AARP is an organization for old people. AARP stands for the American Association of Retired People. What's more, you need to be over 50 to be eligible for the AARP. Of course as I mentioned earlier the letter wasn't addressed to me. Let's take a closer look so you can see who the letter is for.

That's right, it's for a Mr. Stan Sunaoka

Apparently Stanton has been hiding his real age afterall. So this year on November 10 (his birthday) I think you should all help him celebrate his 50th birthday!

Now all kidding aside. A few weeks ago we had our church's 25th anniversary celebration at the water park. They showed a few videos that helped to celebrate what we've accomplished throughout the world. I got to play an FBI agent in the first one (I'm FBI agent #2) and got interviewed in the second.

Getting Punched by the Flyin' Hawaiian

2008-10-18T23:02:00.003-10:00

Today we celebrated 25 years of Hope Chapel in Hawaii! Last year we had an all-church picnic/celebration at Hawaiian Waters Adventure Park and it was such a success that this year we decided to repeat the celebration but because it was our 25th anniversary we decided to also invite all of the other Hope Chapels in Hawaii. Needless to say, it was a big party that we called Splashdown '08, the Reunion.

It was a wonderful day full of wonderful people. I got to ride all the fun rides with some of my friends (Keao hadn't arrived yet, more on that later) including the newly built Tornado and the other favorites like the Shaka and the Cliffhanger. Keao's sister Cassandra was also coming along with us as well as our niece Lauren so I dropped Keao off at her sister's house so they could go together because she wanted to drive separately in case Lauren (who was trying to get over a cold) had to leave early.

So I met up with some friends and we rode some rides for a while and just as the park was about 15 minutes away from closing Mikey came up to me and told me that Keao was looking for me. So like a good husband I went to go look for her. Well, sort of. I decided that since the Flyin' Hawaiian was along the way and since the park was closing soon, I might as well get one last ride in. Well, that was a mistake.

Doesn't look dangerous, does it?

So as we're going up the stairs to go on the Flyin' Hawaiian Mark Matsumoto challenges us to do some sort of free style as we exit the slide and launch into the water. Of course, I had to accept the challenge because I couldn't let him think that he was tougher than me. So as I get ready to get on the ride, I decide that as I fly through the air I'm going to do some sort of twisting motion.

So I go down the slide and as I fly through the air I do some sort of acrobatic twist. The problem is that when I hit the water, I hit the water still twisting. That means that while I was underwater I was still twisted up. No problem right? All I have to do is return to the surface. Ahh, that part was a little harder than I anticipated. You see because I was still twisting under the water I apparently got a little disoriented. Basically I didn't know which way was up. In scuba class they tell you that when you're disoriented all you need to do is look for your bubbles because the bubbles always go up. But what do you do if you're holding your breath?

After being underwater for a few seconds I decided to surface by kicking my way up. Unfortunately for me I wasn't pointed up! In fact I was pointed sideways. And to make matters worse, I was very close to a wall. So I kicked hard to get to the surface and all I ended up doing was kicking my way very solidly into a wall. Ouch. By then I was really disoriented and I really had difficulty finding the surface. Luckily for me, I didn't panic and I made it safely to the top before a lifeguard had to jump in. Unluckily it left a nasty looking bump on my head.

I'm not going to lie...it was really painful

For the rest of the night I had everyone asking me what happened. I got pretty tired of telling people that I swam into a wall so finally I just started telling people that Keao hit me. Pastor Ralph had another theory. He told people that since Keao and I are still newlyweds she gave me a big hickey. Hee hee.

Of course Keao couldn't let me have all the attention. She had to get in on the action as well. So while we were under the tent getting ready to eat she decided to change in to a dry t-shirt. Well even though it was a huge church picnic my wife got a little racy. Even though we were on dry land and there wasn't any outside influence she still managed to somewhat lose her top. Hee hee. She was calling out for help and the only one near enough was her kind sister. That's what family is all about...helping each other.

Here's Cassan lending a hand

The rest of the night went without incident. We had a great dinner surrounded by great friends and finished the night with great worship. I can't wait to see what God has in store for us during the next 25 years!

Everybody's Got a Laughin' Place

2008-10-11T11:36:00.002-10:00

Ahh, Saturday. Saturday brings so much joy. Saturday is the end of the week. Saturday is usually a day off or a fun event. And of course, during the fall, Saturday is college football. This week, I really needed Saturday.

It had been a long draining week. First Charlie would not behave. He kept finding ways to bite his paw even though we had extended his collar and tried to do everything we possibly could. At night before I go to sleep, I check his collar and paw to make sure everything is okay. But when I awaken in the morning I find that his bandage is all mangled. In the words of Keao, "it's just defeating". My sentiments exactly.

It was also a long week because I had to have some heart-to-hearts with some of my good friends. Don't get me wrong, it's not like they were bad heart-to-heart conversations. They were actually quite good. But after 5 or 6 of them, you get a little exhausted.

So I just needed something little to pick me up. You know, something to get me laughing again. Luckily for me, I married a wonderful woman with a wonderful sense of humor. She makes me laugh all the time. That's one of the reason I love being married to her. We laugh a lot together.

So earlier this week Keao noticed that Stanton, my brother, brought home a big bag of Doritos. You know, one of those Costco sized bags. Now for the most part we don't eat each other's food unless it is made known that this food is up for grabs. In other words, we treat each other like roommates.

So on Monday or something, I noticed that Keao was eating his chips. I warned her that those were not our chips and she shouldn't eat them without his permission. Instead of just asking if she could have some she comes up with this theory: 1f she only eats a few at a time he will never notice that any of his chips are missing. Good theory right?

Well as the week continues the bag is getting less and less full. Kind of noticeably empty. I actually didn't think much of it until Friday night when Keao was getting ready to go to work. Since she works the overnight shift she gets ready to leave at around 10:15pm. We just got home from church and she was getting her dinner ready. As I head toward the kitchen to keep her company I hear the unmistakable sound of a chip bag crinkling. Then I see what she's doing. She's emptying the Doritos into a zip-loc bag. I couldn't contain my amusement. Is this what she meant by taking a few here or there?

With a shocked look on her face she crumbles and confesses her guilt. Not only is she taking more than a "few" chips, she also has been eating them for breakfast when she comes home. The once full bag of Doritos is now reduced to a remnant of crumbs. At this point I couldn't stop my laughter. Even know as I'm typing this, I'm laughing to myself (not too loudly though because Keao is sitting right next to me watching a movie). I wonder if Stanton even noticed.

Arts and Crafts are Fun!

2008-10-09T08:39:00.003-10:00

Hi. Welcome back. I know it's been a while and I haven't even gotten any Japan pictures up yet, but since I've been home I've been crazy busy. Not just busy, crazy busy. So sorry for the delay. We'll return to our regularly scheduled program. Oh, and sorry this post won't be about Japan either. I mean to get some pics up since it was an amazing trip, but there are more pressing matters at hand. Actually, there's one pressing matter. His name is Charlie.

Charlie is my dog. For the most part, he's a good dog, he just has had some unfortunate injuries. Now you would think that since he spends 99% of his life in a yard with a fence, how injured could he get? Well here's a picture of him that I took maybe 3 or for years ago.

He's a handsome dog isn't he?

Notice the white tip of his tail? Umm, yeah, that's no longer there. Apparently one night, Charlie was chasing his tail and he got lucky...or unlucky I suppose. At some point, he managed, we think, to catch his tail and chomp down on it. Soooooo, to make a long story short, we had to take him to the vet and chop off the tip of his tail. So now his tail is a little shorter.

Fast forward to July, 2008. We were at Keao's sister, Cassandra's, party at our house and we noticed that Charlie had a bump on his toe. It was pretty big, but we just figured if we leave it alone it would eventually heal and go away. Of course, as you may suspect by my great job of foreshadowing, it did not go away and it turned out to be a tumor. So we took him into the vet and had it removed. That part was easy.

We brought him home and put on one of those collar thingies (for the record, they're called Elizabethan collars). Here's a particularly evil looking picture of Charlie taken by my brother Stanton.

Note the pink bandage on his right paw

So we bring him home and we notice something a bit odd. The cone that's supposed to be protecting him from himself doesn't quite work right. It's just a little too short. He can still reach his paw. Let that sink in for a bit. The protective cone doesn't protect his paw. It's useless. Of course since he can get to his paw we scold him everytime he gets near it.

Well yesterday morning we wake up and find that he did indeed get to his paw. In fact he got into his paw a little too much. The bandage was shredded and there was blood everywhere! Keao said it looked like a crime scene (except we know how the guilty party is). So we panic and call the vet only to find out that the vet is closed on Wednesdays. But she has a pager for emergencies and we figured this qualifies as one. Of course she calls back and doesn't offer much sympathy. Like it's our fault. We only had what she gave us. So she tells us to use some manila folders and to extend the collar. Umm, it's a good thing we have manila folders...actually we don't have manila folders so we had to get creative. Good thing I was a summer fun leader with a certification for arts and crafts.

After a few cuts with a scissors and some masking tape this is what we came up with.

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine

I think he can now get cable on that thing (or at least hear very well)

It's kind of gross, but can you see the blood everywhere?

So anyway, Keao took him back to the vet this morning. I'll let her fill you in on the rest of the morbid details. Meanwhile I think we need to figure out how to permanently extend that collar.

I Toll You This Would Happen!

2008-09-02T12:57:00.002-10:00

So this is our last day…kind of sad to see the trip end, but I really am excited to go home and see my wife, sleep in my own bed and most importantly, get out of this Florida heat!

Since John had never been to Florida or Walt Disney World, we decided to check out Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It’s a theme park that’s kind of part zoo and part Disney. In other words there are animals, as well as rides. It’s a pretty unique place. I enjoyed it quite immensely.

But before we could enjoy the park, we had to get there. Scott was nice enough to let us use his van so we left at like 8:00am to try to get to the park early. The Walt Disney World resort was about 80 miles or so away so we Googled the directions and off we went. Because the van had driven from Palm Bay (where the Whipples live) to Gainesville and back, we knew at some point we’d need to fill in gas. What we didn’t know was how to manage all the toll booths along the Florida turnpike.

Actually, how had could toll booths be? You give them money and they let you drive on their roads. We actually it turned out to be a lot harder than we anticipated.

We got to the first toll booth and gave the lady like $1.25. No problem she let us pass. Then we started to run low on gas and we were looking for some area where we could fill up. We drove for miles and miles and nothing looked promising so we kept on driving. Finally we saw a sign that said, “Orlando International Airport”. Bingo! They must have gas stations near there since people have to fill their rental cars before they return them back to the rental car companies.

So we take the airport cutoff and head toward the toll booth. Here’s where the fun began.

Unbeknownst to John and I, not every toll booth has someone in them. This one didn’t. It was completely unmanned. Then to make matters worse it asked for exact change (the toll was a dollar). It would only take loose change and $1’s and $5’s. Now, I had given my last $1 to the lady at the last toll booth so the smallest bill I had was a $20. John had lost his wallet at the football game (he found it later completely intact except for all his cash) so the smallest bill he had was $100.

Great, we thought, what are we going to do? We thought about reversing and trying to find another exit, but by then another car was behind us and we couldn’t back up. So the only thing we could do was go forward and take our chances. Of course we go through and the alarm sounds. So we pull over and check for cameras. Yup, there they are, pointing right at us. So we walk back to the machine to see if there’s number we can call to explain the situation. Negative, no number.

By then we don’t know what to do. We don’t want Scott to get a fine or a ticket so we start scrounging around the van looking for loose change. We manage to find a few quarters and some dimes and tons of pennies. So we count them up and we still are a few cents short. We scrounge around some more and John looks in cups and other containers and he manages to find a few more dimes. JACKPOT!

Now we’re feeling good. All we need to do is reverse and pay the toll. So we back up to the machine and throw in the dollar comprised of loose change. Nothing happens. We wait some more. Nothing happens. Now we don’t know what to do. We tried to rectify the situation, but we still don’t want to Scott to get a ticket.

John goes, “Maybe we need to reverse some more so that the machine can detect a car.” Sounds like a good idea so I back up and re-enter the toll booth. It works! Well, it worked, but now it’s asking me for another dollar. Augh! Stupid machine! I throw in a few pennies just to make sure that the machine is working. The pennies disappear and now the machine reads: Toll 0.97. It definitely works. At this point, we had exhausted our change in the car except for a few pennies so we decide to just screw it and drive away. Of course, the alarm goes off again and we speed away as fast as we can. Yeah, we’re law breakers, but we left the state of Florida so I think we’ll be okay.

Finally, we get gas and head back to Disney.

After an interesting adventure we arrive

The Animal Kingdom is divided into different lands (like the other Disney parks) with the Tree of Life right in the middle. Overall, it’s a fun place. We were told to do the safari first so we headed off to Africa to see what kind of animals we could see.

The tree of life

A rhino

Some hippos cruising under water

A croc trying to cool off

Some beast with big horns (I can't remember what it's called)

This giraffe was literally right outside of the tram

Some elephants doing their thing

A lion stretching on a tree

Of course Disney has to make it exciting and we can’t just ride a ride with out some kind of plot point, so on this ride we go after poachers.

Poacher central

After the ride we went on a jungle walk. This part is most like a zoo. Here you just follow the trail and you can see different animal exhibits. There were one of these in Africa and another in Asia. Both have animals specific to the continent.

It's a meerkat, like Timon

Ahh, what a life!

I think he knows we're watching him

Yup, he knows

After that we went to Rafiki’s place. This is mostly for kid’s as it has some characters like Jiminy Cricket and Pocahantas and a petting zoo. They also had some cool behind the scene looks at things and other neat animals in big tanks.

Here's a snake of some sort

A not-so-hidden Mickey

These ant looking bugs are really wasps

Not all the bugs are in glass tanks

Then we walked over to Asia to check out Expedition Everest, one of Disney’s newest roller coasters. But along the way we saw a crowd gathered around with their cameras out. It took us a while to see what was attracting the crowd. Can you see it?

She has the best holloween costume

By this time we were hungry so I had to have a turkey leg. What else would we eat at the Animal Kingdom?

Mmm, turkey legs...

These guys kept begging us for food, apparently they can't read the signs

On to Asia!

There's Expedition Everest

Like the jungle walk in Africa, Asia’s one had its fair share of cool animals.

That's a Komodo Dragon

A giant hanging bat

I can totally see why these guys cause nightmares

When I asked what kind of tiger this was, the lady just said, "Asian"

After the walk we did go on a few rides in Asia. Of course we tried Expedition Everest. As far as roller coasters go, it was pretty good. There were some neat surprises and other tricks. But I must say, I was most disappointed at the length of the ride. It seemed really short. Luckily the lines were short (we went as single riders and we the longest we waited was only 15 minutes) so we rode a few times.

We also did the rapids. It’s one of those “you will get wet, you may get soaked” rides. One particularly funny moment happened when we were getting in our seats. There’s a covered bowl in the middle of the raft where you can put the things you want to keep dry. Well this Asian fellow puts in his camera and phone like most other people. But then he doesn’t stop there. Much to the chagrin of the other riders on his side, he took off his socks and put them in the bowl as well. Then he put his shoes in there too! This girl made a funny face (actually it was more a face of disgust) but he didn’t seem to care. Good thing he put it on his side of the bowl.

Then we went to Dinoland USA. I think it’s a play off of a roadside attraction. As usual it’s very well done. There were some really cool rides here as well. There’s s ride called Dinosaur in which you go back in time to bring back a dinosaur. It’s very similar to the Indiana Jones ride except you go back in time.

It’s sponsored by McDonald’s so they had some fun with it.

We also went to the Finding Nemo show which was excellent. It was probably one of the coolest shows I’ve ever seen Disney do. We also saw “It’s Tough to Be a Bug” which is like “Honey, I Shrunk the Audience” and “Captain Eo”

There's John with his "bug eyes"

Lastly, did you ever wonder how they determine what the wait time for a ride is? I found out when we went on a ride and the lady handed me this:

So that's the secret!

And that concludes Scott and John’s East Coast trip. In addition to Florida and New York, we also passed through New Jersey, Arizona and Washington. That makes five states, five boroughs, four stadiums and one theme park. Whew, it’s no wonder we’ll need a vacation from our vacation. But all in all, it was totally worth it.

To see the rest of the Disney pictures click here.

Welcome to the Swamp

2008-09-02T12:22:00.002-10:00

Once we got to Florida it was immediately clear that we were in Gator Country. For one thing the weather in New York was absolutely fabulous. It wasn’t too hot, it wasn’t too cold. It didn’t rain. We could wear shorts and t-shirts and everything was fine. Not so much in Florida. It was hot and humid. Literally, it felt like we were in a swamp. Even at night it was still hot and humid. There was seemingly no relief from the heat.

But everything got better once Scott Whipple picked us up (his van and his house had air conditioning). It was very nice to reunite with Scott and his family. They used to come to Hope Chapel but moved to Florida about six years ago.

Luckily for us, I saw him at the Sugar Bowl in January and told him we were thinking about going to Florida. He immediately opened up his home to us and even let us use hi s car! So it was a very good deal for us.

The reason we came to Florida was to watch the University of Hawaii Warriors play the University of Florida Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field aka the Swamp! Unfortunately for us the University of Florida was in Gainesville which was about 3 hours away from where we were staying. Then there was the problem of the crowds. Florida has had 117 consecutive sellouts and this one was different. In comparison to Aloha Stadium which holds 50,000 the Swamp holds 90,000 (announced attendance at the game was 90,575!). Then to make matters worse, the stadium is on the UF campus (which is a learning institution first and a sports arena second) so it’s not like there’s a dedicated parking lot just for the game.

We were told to get there by 6:30am, 7:00am at the latest if we wanted to find on campus parking. So if you’re doing the math at home that meant we had to leave at 3:30am! Oh well that was the experience we wanted to have. SEC football at it’s finest. It was the first SEC game that all of us (including Scott and his boys) had ever attended so we were all kind of awestruck. Tickets for these games are very hard to come by (remember the consecutive sellout streak?) so it was a real treat to even be able to go.

Luckily Scott agreed to drive so me, John and his three boys, Ellis, Zach and Shea all got to sleep on the way to the game. We made good time and got there a little early. We were in the parking lot before 6:00am and had our choice of parking stalls. The problem is that Scott’s wife (the only one who had actually attended a game at the Swamp) graduated from Florida’s arch-rival Florida State University and their van had a FSU license plate on the back and a Hawaii plate in the front. Either way it didn’t look good. When Scott asked a man in the parking lot what he should do, the man casually responded that he “should take it off and get it off the campus”. It’s a good thing he was joking (or at least we thought he was).

But the first thing is that the campus is huge. It’s way bigger than Manoa. Second, even at 7:00am in the morning, it’s already hot and humid. Third, the atmosphere on game day is electric. Everyone was wearing Gator colors and logos. We checked out the bookstore to see what they had available and you’d be shocked to see what they put a Gator logo on. There’s the usual suspects like t-shirts, polos, sweatshirts and whatnot, but then there were also other articles of clothing that I don’t think UH ever thought about putting a logo on.

I know a guy back home that would be in heaven with this rack

I bet you feel warm and safe with Gators on your robes and pajamas

Gator flip-flops or as they call them here, thongs

And of course, Gator Crocs...does anyone else see the irony in this?

After we looked at the Gatorwear we decided to find the stadium. I mean how hard can it be right? It was probably the largest structure on campus. I gotta say, the place is huge! It’s very impressive. If you’re ever in doubt where you are, there are reminders every where.

Scott's wrestling the Gator

The Gator Gate!

I don’t know if you noticed, but Florida managed to win two National Championships in 1996 and 2006. There are very proud of their football there (there’s a huge book called 100 Years of Florida Football) and with good reason. They have the national championships, the SEC championships, the Heisman trophies and the other national awards. John’s friend Tamar’s dad is a coach for the Gators so she arranged for us to check out the trophy room. This room is normally closed on gameday, but she totally hooked us up.

The National Championship Trophy

Tebow's Heisman

Wuerffel's Heisman

Spurrier's Heisman

The poster above the interactive display

Us and the Whipple's between the National Championship Trophys

Then once we got into the stadium I could understand why it’s rated the 3rd toughest place to play in the nation. Steve Spurrier nicknamed the stadium the swamp because he said that swamps are hot, humid and intimidating. They should not be welcoming to outsiders but Gators should be very comfortable there. There are reminders everywhere of where you are.

Is there any doubt that you're in the Swamp?

The Ring of Honor that runs over the player's tunnel

The newly added luxury boxes

This was the 117th consecutive sellout (announced crowd of 90,575)

Unfortunately for Hawaii we were a little outmatched. Actually we held them close in the first quarter. It’s too bad the first quarter had to end because that’s when they turned it up. They scored on offense, defense and special teams. After a scoreless first quarter, the Gators hung 28 points on us in the second and third quarters. They took a 56-0 game into the fourth quarter. We actually held them scoreless again in the fourth while we put up 10, but it was a little too late and we lost the game 56-10.
But for us just the experience of being in a big-time college football program was an experience I’ll never forget. They have so many traditions that make the experience for the fan an incredible one.

This year's Whipple Christmas card

Me and John after the game

Oh well, let’s put that game behind us and get ready for our home opener next Saturday.

To see the rest of the day's pictures click here.

Start Spreading the News, I’m Leaving Today

2008-09-01T23:16:00.003-10:00

So after four days in New York it’s time to say goodbye. I must say, as a whole, I’m quite impressed with New York City. There is so much to see and do here. Even though it felt like we were going and going and going, we still didn’t get to see and do everything we wanted to. Oh well, I guess we’ll just have to come back again.

So on our last day, we had some last minute things we wanted to see. My friend Chuco asked me to bring him back a hat from Yankee Stadium. Unfortunately for Chuco, he asked me on the day after we went to the stadium. And since Yankee Stadium is all the way in the Bronx, the odds of us going back there again were pretty slim. But not to worry! There’s a Modell’s right in Times Square and Yong suggested that we “gotta go to Mo’s” and find a hat there.

Of course, Yong is right. There are indeed many Yankee hats there. But they didn’t really have any good ones. The ones with the Yankee logo are basically hats you can get any where, nothing unique about them. Then I saw it…the most unique Yankee hat I had ever laid my eyes on. I thought, “there’s the hat for Chuco.” So I bought it. I gave him a call to tell him that the mission had been accomplished. He asked me what it looked like and I told him it was nice. He then said something along the lines of “as long as it’s not too gaudy” he’d like it. Ummm, gaudy? Do you think this hat is gaudy?

In retrospect, maybe I should have given this to Chuco

As we were walking back to our hotel one night we spotted a 24-hour White Castle. Now I had never tried a White Castle burger but I’ve heard the Beastie Boys rap about it and more recently there was that movie Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (although I didn’t see it). So we figured we needed to give it a try.

Can you believe this was right next to our hotel?

It doesn’t look like much, but let me tell you, those are good burgers. Not only are they small and cute, but they’re quite tasty as well. John and I quite enjoyed our great breakfast.

I ate the four small burgers, onion rings and a drink

Since we had a few hours before we had to get to the airport, John wanted to go back to Times Square (me too, to return Chuco’s hat) and check out Ripley’s Believe it or Not’s Odditorium. They have these Odditoriums all over the United States. I’ve been to the one in Orlando and the one in San Francisco, but they are cool so what the heck, let’s go.

The Odditorium is filled with bizarre things from around the world. Many of them were collected by Robert Ripley, but even after his death, they continued to collect them and show them in these exhibits. Some things are abnormalities and other deformities while other things are just unusual to us but commonplace in other parts of the world. Some are strange coincidences and still others can only be defined as unique.

Does this count as two head of cattle?

In one section they have an area dedicated to different forms of punishment and other weird ways to inflict pain on others.

Everything you need to kill the undead all in one kit!

Look how sad this fellow looks...

If only these were in use today...

One of these heads is not like the other

Then another section is dedicated various aspects of sex (both the enhancements and the rituals)

It doesn't look sharp enough does it?

Before

After

Umm, yeah, no comment

And after that we caught a train to Newark and bid a fond farewell to New York City. Off to our next adventure to Florida!

I'm So Tired, I Haven't Slept a Wink

2008-08-31T20:10:00.001-10:00

Too tired to blog. It's been a long 3 days...sorry.

You can check out three days worth of pictures here.

I'll narrate them tomorrow or so.

No Sleep till Brooklyn!

2008-08-28T19:40:00.003-10:00

Well we did it. We checked Brooklyn off the list and we visited all five boroughs. We actually didn't see very much of Brooklyn as we headed straight to the south point of Coney Island. It's kind of a long trip and because we were meeting Yong and John's friend Brenda we couldn't stay very long.

The main reason we were visiting Coney Island is for the hot dogs. More specifically Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs. We wanted to see where it all began. I mean, you can get Nathan's hot dogs in other places, but we wanted to see the place where they first sold them. According to legend, Nathan wanted to be the first place a person saw when they got off the train to Coney Island. As they say in the biz, it's all about location, location, location. And true enough, it was pretty hard to miss as we exited the subway station.

Overall, Coney Island is kind of an old place. While it is a throwback to the old-timey boardwalks, it is also kind of sad. Our friend, Pete, who's from New York told us not to bother going there because it wasn't worth it. I wouldn't go that far, but I will say that it doesn't offer much. Mostly eateries, gift shops, games and a small amusement park that reminded me of the 50th state fair.

There it is right on the corner

It's a little more than the original price of 5 cents

I guess they go through a lot of hot dogs!

Here's what $3 got me

They even sell hot dogs (not Nathan's) out of vending machines!

Like I said earlier they have a small amusement park. One of the more interesting things we saw was the "Shoot the Freak" game. Basically you get a paintball gun and you can shoot at a dude holding up a shield. Interesting concept. It was pretty popular too. I saw at least three people ponying up $3 for five shots or $5 for fifteen shots.

It would have been more impressive if he didn't have a shield

After eating some food we wandered around and I noticed the large wooden roller coaster dubbed the Cyclone. This is one of more famous wooden roller coasters. Now, I usually don't like to ride wooden roller coasters because they are pretty rickety and jerky. The last one I went on was the Ghost Rider at Knott's Berry Farm on my honeymoon. After riding that one I felt like my fillings had been jarred loose. But since this was such a historical roller coaster, I felt I needed to ride it.

It costs $8 a ride with the option of a reride for $5. Yup, I pretty much hate wooden roller coasters. It actually wasn't that jerky but I took my preferred seat in the last car in the train and there was apparently a bar under the seat cushion. We went up and as we were going down the first drop all the jerking made my butt come up off the seat and then land hard on that bar over and over again. My tailbone was so sore after that first drop I dreaded every drop after that (and there were many). By the time the ride ended I was in so much pain (even as I'm writing this, my butt is still sore!).

The world famous Cyclone

After walking around for a bit, we spotted this candy shop. Another thing that Coney Island is famous for is their salt water taffy. But as I was in line I spotted this sign for an interesting treat. Since I'm such a sucker for gimmicks I decided to try one. Actually John and I both had one.

After reading this I had to try one

I bet you were wondering what the heck I was talking about

I think John like it too!

After returning from Coney Island, we had to turn around, find Yong and head straight to New Jersey to meet up with John's friend Brenda. For dinner she took us to Charlie Brown's Steakhouse. Of course, since we had so much beef yesterday (see: Carnegie Deli and the Old Homestead) what did John and I both order? Shrimp of course. We had 24 shrimp for $12.99. Very reasonable. In Hawaii that would be at least $5-6 more expensive. Maybe Keao and I should move to New Jersey.

Doesn't that look delicious?

Here we are post meal

After that we headed over to Giants Stadium. The game itself was rather uneventful as it was the last preseason game of the summer and that meant that many of the starters were sitting out resting. That meant no Tom Brady and no Eli Manning. It was pretty boring. We watched for a while and then we left sometime during the fourth quarter.

On the way out we had one of those "you-had-to-be-there" moments. As we were walking down from the upper tier we had to walk down a big spiral. Sometime during that walk Brenda got the hiccups. Yong made some comment about the way she sounded and then out of nowhere he yelled and lunged at her! Brenda jumped like three feet in the air and screamed (and then she promptly hit Yong). While we were all laughing hysterically Yong tried to explain that that was his way to stop hiccups. He just had to scare them. And you know what? The darn thing worked! Now, I've tried that technique many times, but that was the first time I've ever seen it work.

John and I between the legs of a giant Giant

Brenda and John

Yong and I before we left

Lastly, one of the things that we wanted to do before we left New York was to eat a hot dog from one of those street vendors. I don't know why I thought they would be better than a normal hot dog, but John and I did try one out before we got back to our hotel. I must say, it was pretty ordinary. Basically I could have done the same thing at home. There's $2 I'm not going to see again. Oh well, you live you learn.

Well that's one more thing we can check off the list

To view the rest of the day's pictures click here.

I'm in a New York State of Mind

2008-08-27T17:48:00.005-10:00

So today we did something that we hadn't done before. We didn't venture to another borough. Although we are staying in Manhattan, we've been going to baseball games and other things so we really didn't have a chance to see the borough we were staying in. We've been catching the subway so the only part of Manhattan we've seen was the walk between the hotel and the station.

Now we thought about taking one of those bus tours but at the last minute Keao's friend Yong came to our rescue. Like many kids from Hawaii, Keao went to the mainland for college. But instead of going to the west coast like so many people, she decided to pick a college on the other edge of the country, Boston College. There she befriended a great guy named Yong who happened to grow up in New York City. It was Yong who would guide us through the city.

For the most part, Manhattan is built on a grid system. That makes it fairly easy to get around and navigate through the city. Today our tour (on foot) traversed an area at least four blocks wide by almost fifty blocks long. When we figured it out using Google maps, we must have walked at least 6 miles today (before getting on a subway and then walking some more). No wonder we're so tired!

But it was a very great tour. We started by going to Madison Square Garden, then heading through the fashion district to Times Square, then up Broadway and then finding lunch at the Carnegie Deli.

The home of many New York Knicks heartbreaks

You know you're in the fashion district when you pass by Parsons

Look at all the billboards and lights!

John and I outside the Ed Sullivan Theater

At long last we break for lunch

The Carnegie Deli is one of the most famous deli's in New York. They have a shirt in there that say, "if you finish our sandwich, we must have done something wrong" They weren't kidding. The late comedian Mitch Hedberg once said that he hates the sandwiches at New York Deli's because they put so much meat in them. He said it's like, "an entire cow with two crackers on either side. They ask you if you want anything else, yeah, a loaf of bread and more people!"

As we were getting ready to order, our plan was for me to order a corned beef sandwich and for John to order a pastrami sandwich. But Yong implored us to order a Woody Allen (with waitress, who called us "Lovely Hula Hands" warned us that it wouldn't come with a fifteen year old girl). That's a sandwich with both corned beef and pastrami. Big mistake. The sandwich was so huge we could barely pick it up with our hands!

At the end, only Yong finished his sandwich. John tapped out first (even after answering, "it's done" to the question of whether or not he could finish). I didn't do much better. I would say it was a tie (okay, maybe I did have the slight edge).

Looks so innocent doesn't it?

That's the Woody Allen!

It's as tall as a can of soda and that's only half!

Yong, the champion of the Carnegie Deli

Yong said John and I deserved to be on the Wall of Shame

That's what was left after I completely stuffed myself silly!

After lunch we decided to walk off our lunch and walk we did. The Carnegie Deli is somewhere around 55th Street. I wanted to see Strawberry Fields in Central Park which is on 72nd Street. If you do the math, that's almost 20 blocks! Whew, no wonder our feet were so tired afterward.

We got to Strawberry Fields and got there just in time to hear some dude give a little speech about the area. I don't know why I thought it would be a bigger area, but it's really the only thing to see was a little tile mosaic with the word "imagine" in the middle.

"Imagine all the people living life in peace"

There's a tour you can take that will show you famous places in New York's film and television history. Yong helped us see a lot of that for free.

The musem featured in Night at the Museum is the American Museum of Natural History

The Plaza Hotel, home of Eloise

The piano from Big can be yours for only $250,000

The store that inspired Breakfast at Tiffany's

The home of the Apprentice

Live from New York it's Saturday Night! and other NBC shows

Then after our walking tour we headed over to the SoHo district. SoHo is short for South of Houston Street. Once it was kind of a hippie area, but now it's a lot of high end stores and other expensive things. My brother wanted something from a Diesel outlet and the only Diesel store I went to was in SoHo. When we first walked in there I looked at a t-shirt and noticed it was $110. Then I picked up a polo style shirt and that was $130. Definitely not a discount outlet. I called him to tell him that I couldn't find anything cheap and as I was telling him, "I don't think there's anything discout here" I guess I told him kind of loud because this woman actually turned around from walking to see who made such a comment and to laugh at me. So shame.

After SoHo we went to dinner. Now John and I were both really full, but since we had reservations at the Old Homestead we decided to honor that and go. Like the Carnegie Deli, this was one of the most famous steakhouses in Manhattan. I must say it was pretty disappointing. Since we were so full from lunch we ordered a salad and a steak to share. We ordered a ribeye, which is a pretty hard cut of meat to ruin. When it came out, it was rather flavorless and somewhat warm. I think it would have been much better had it been hot and a little more tender and flavorful. Either way, it wasn't that good of a steak.

Serving steaks for 130 years

The roasted garlic was the best part

After that we headed back to our room or an early night.

To view the rest of our day's adventures click here.

Rumble in the Bronx

2008-08-26T20:17:00.006-10:00

It's late. I'm tired. Don't let the time stamp fool you, it's really around a quarter after two in the morning, but if I don't write down my thoughts now, I'll never be able to remember them, so on with the show.

You know, whenever you travel people always ask you how your hotel room was. Usually, I mention that it's not the nicest, but at least it's clean. Well, this hotel is something else. In addition to smelling like an ASHtray, it is also small as well. Then last night I took a shower and the darn tub wouldn't drain. I felt so bad...not because I broke the tub, but because John-John still had to shower after me and since we had traveled for like 18 straight hours and then we still had a full day, we were pretty dirty. So instead of making John bathe in my wastewater, he decided to shower in the morning. This is what greeted him in the morning.

Whoops, sorry about that John...

Also our toilet had some pretty permanant stains (it wasn't as bad as the toilets at Yankee Stadium though)

Pretty gross eh?

Sorry if I ruined any appetite, but if I told you about the Yankee Stadium toilets you'd probably retch so I'll just leave that one alone.

But anyway, despite our hotel room, the trip is wonderful. For the most part getting around has been pretty good as well although I gotta say, the subways in Japan are much easier to navigate than the subways in New York. You can't tell what's a local line and what's an express. They don't announce the next stop so unless you're by a window you can't really tell where you are. The maps aren't very clear and it smells...just like everything else in New York (we discovered a new smell while we were waiting with a thousand of our closest friends in a subway station without any ventilation or cooling system in the Bronx). But still, they are the easiest way to get around.

He kind of blends in doesn't he?

So far probably the highlight of the trip was taking a tour of Yankee Stadium. It's kind of a behind the scenes thing. We entered the stadium through the press entrance and were greeted by this sign:

Look, God answered two of Joe's prayers (the other being his marriage to Marilyn Monroe)

But we got to walk through the stadium before anyone else was there. Very cool. The first place they took us was to Monument Park. This is an area behind the outfield that is a tribute to past players and other dignitaries that have visited Yankee Stadium. They even have a few plaques commemorating a few masses that a few Popes have done.

This is where the players can come to relax

The Babe

Yogi Berra and his mentor, Bill Dickey, both wore the same number

Casey Stengel is the only person to have his number retired by both the Yankees and the Mets

Here's a picture from last night, notice the 37 there too?

Ever wonder where the Yankees got their logo?

This is for a mass held in 1965

Here's one for 9/11

One of the neatest things about this tour was that they let us walk on the field. We got to walk all along the warning track from the outfield to the dugout. They wouldn't let us walk on the grass field, but when they weren't looking I snuck my foot on the Kentucky Bluegrass.

That's my foot on the warning track

As I said earlier, they let us go into the visiting team dugout too. I guess I didn't know what to expect, but I would have thought that the dugouts were more lavish. They were quite spartan. Basically there's a padded bench and some steps and that's it. It's quite narrow too.

Me, John and a water cooler cruising in the dugout

After that we went up to the press box. It literally has the nicest view in the house. You can see everything in perfect clarity. There were rows of work tables and telephones where reporters can work on their stories.

Here's the view

Here's where I sat. Can you guess what BBWAA stands for?

Here I am calling in my breaking news story

Keao's not the only artsy photographer in the family!

After the stadium tour, we went to a couple of shops that sell Yankee merchandise. I was in there and I asked the guy how much a hat cost. Get this, just because I look Japanese, he automatically assumes that I'm from Japan. He answers me in Japanese! I mean, I did ask him in english and I kind of expected an english response in return. Oh well, I guess I should be impressed by his language ability.

After that lesson in race relations we decided to go to Staten Island. There's a free ferry that goes there so the price was definitely right. If you're keeping score at home, so far we've visited four of the five boroughs, Manhattan and Queens last night and the Bronx and Staten Island today. But back to the ferry ride. It's a short ride across New York harbor and there are some really cool views of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

Here's where many immigrants crossed before coming to America

The famous Statue of Liberty

These waterfall things were pretty cool too

By the time we got to Staten Island it was pretty late so we decided to get some food. We saw a few places that looked interesting but in the end we decided to go for the safe bet...pizza.

This looked good until we looked closer and spotted the word "organic"

The Popeye's looked good too, but we figured we could get that back home

The buffalo chicken pizza on the right was excellent!

You know the food's good when they don't even try to be polite

After lunch we went to the Staten Island museum. As far as museums go, this one was okay. It was small and somewhat interesting and it was only $2. They said no pictures so that means I only took two (it was so cool I couldn't resist).

These rocks are glowing under high intensity ultraviolet light

Then, of course, we had to head back to the Bronx to go to the game. It was the Yankees v. the Red Sox. One of sports most intense rivalries. We all expected a great game full of dirty plays and nasty fans. Maybe it was because the Red Sox dominated this game or maybe it was because we were so high up, in either case, it was pretty tame. The worst part of the whole thing was entering the stadium and missing the sign that said, "<--- evens, odds --->". What that means is if you're in an even section go left and if you're in an odd section go right. We were in section 36, but since I missed it I went to the right. We're talking the complete wrong side of the stadium. We were in the last section, in the third row from the top. I felt so bad for John because I made him walk from one side to the other.

Recognize this shot from Seinfeld when George works for the Yankees?

We were so high up we were above the foul pole

See how high the lights are?

This is how close we were to them from our seats!

Here we are after the game

So after this very full day, we were heading home on the subway and this guys asks John if he ever fought in a UFC. He then explains that in the 90's there was this guy that beat up this sumo dude. I guess because John is Japanese and, um, you know, he thought John was that guy. Nah, he thought John was the another guy that fought the dude that beat up the sumo guy. Maybe John has a career in ultimate fighting yet.

To view the rest of the pictures from Yankee Stadium and Staten Island click here.

Live from New York...it's Monday Night!

2008-08-25T18:45:00.003-10:00

Whew, we finally made it. A while ago John-John and I heard that UH was playing the Florida Gators at the Swamp and we decided that if all possible we should go to that game. Well, one thing led to another and we also decided that since Shea Stadium (home of the Mets) and Yankee Stadium (home of the Yankees) were being torn down at the end of the year to make room for new ballparks we only had one chance to see baseball games at those legendary stadiums. So here we are in New York.

Now, I have never been to New York before so I was very excited to come and see the sights. But before we could come to New York we had to get there (right?). Unfortunately for us ATA went bankrupt and we were forced to make some pretty crappy flights. By crappy, I mean we left Hawaii at 3:00pm and arrived in Phoenix at midnight local time. Then, we had a 6 hour layover and we had to sit in the airport for 6 hours. But wait, it gets worse. There's no real place to lie down and the air conditioner was only partially on (by which I mean it was really hot). So as we suffered in the heat we were also tired. Then we caught a 6:00am flight and arrived in New York at around 2:45pm local time.

Then it took another 45 minutes to get our bags. Don't ask me why it just did.

So here are my first impressions of New York:
1. There are many differences in the way things sound.
2. There are many differences in the way things smell.

Seriously. If I had to say what the two most notable things are, it would be the sounds and the smells.

Firstly, everyone says that Hawaii is a melting pot (and it is) but New York is a completely different type of melting pot. I've heard more different types of accents and languages today then I've heard in my entire 32 years in Hawaii! Also everyone looks really different. In Hawaii there is a lot of brown skin. Over here there's white all the way to dark. It's kind of like a black and white cookie (which incidentally I had today, it was very good), with every shade in between.

Secondly, it's the smells. From the moment we landed at JFK, to the taxi, to our hotel room, to our hotel bathroom, it all smells. And it doesn't smell good. But wait, it gets worse. We go outside and it's even stinkier! New York is full of unpleasant aromas. Oh well, that's the breaks I guess.

But anyway, we did see some really cool things. Shea Stadium is right across the street from the USTA headquarters which is hosting the US Open this week. That means it was really crowded near the stadium.

Arthur Ashe Stadium, home of the US Open

I think the first thing I noticed about Shea Stadium is that it's really big. I mean I've been to RFK and Petco Park, but Shea seems mammoth.

Home of the Mets since 1964

At the end of this season, the Mets are moving to Citi Field, which is being built right next door. In fact there are only 16 more regular season home games left (I know because they do a countdown before every game)

Shea is to the immediate left

There are sad reminders everywhere

The game itself was rather unexciting. The Mets jumped to an early lead and they never looked back. Carlos Delgado hit a pair of home runs. Guess how they honor him?

Who knew they speak Japanese at Shea?

Well, I'm exhausted due to a lack of sleep and a funny sleeping schedule. I'll try to update everyday as we go along. Tomorrow we head to the Bronx (we're actually trying to visit all five boroughs) so we'll see you on the flipside!

To view more pictures from today, click here

Board (or Bored) Games

2008-08-14T10:26:00.004-10:00

So after my brief encounter with Barack Obama at Olomana Golf Links we had our very first Couples Game Night. Now I don't know about you, but I love board games. It brings out the competitive side in me. Rob and Kelli were the ones who organized this event and they brought the lion's share of the games. They had so many games (and so many that I had never even heard of).

Check out that spread!

Notice in the lower left hand side of the picture there's a game called Carcassonne Big Box? That's one of Rob and Kelli's favorite games. Keao and I tried to play it a few weeks ago and let me tell you, it is a fun game, but it really does make you feel like a geek! Without giving you too many details, there are these little humanoid figures called Meeples (rhymes with peoples). They can farm, rob, occupy cities and the like. So your goal is to get as many points using these Meeples to farm, rob, etc. The game goes round and round until you run out of tiles and then all the points are added up. Like I said before, it is a fun game...just a little nerdy :)

Look at that intensity!

Now it looks like they're having fun

But Carcassonne wasn't the only game we played. We also played one of my all-time favorite games, Scattergories. Basically Scattergories is played with a die that has different letters on it. You roll the die and whatever letter is on top is the letter for the list. What that means is that you need to answer every item on the list with a word or words starting with the letter. For instance, if your letter is L and one of the items on the list is "villians" you could answer Lucifer or Lex Luthor or any villian that starts with the letter L (it doesn't matter if it's a first name or last name). The catch is that you cannot have the same answer as anyone else or they negate each other. When you play with people with big vocabularies and a large knowledge base this game can be really fun and exciting (for instance, John John pulled out Djibuti City as a capital starting with the letter D). I don't want to brag or anything, but I pretty much owned everyone at Scattergories. That's right, you read that right. I pretty much owned everyone. If you think you can take me on let me know. I'm always willing to send someone home crying!

Despite their spanking, the other couples still managed to smile

My Brush with (possible) Greatness

2008-08-12T17:41:00.004-10:00

Whew what a crazy weekend! I think I'll probably have to do three posts just to cover Saturday alone (actually Sunday was rather mundane so it was really only Saturday that was very exciting).

The day started out fine and dandy. I had several events scheduled so I knew it would be along day. It started with golf outing at Olomana, then a couples game night and then lastly, Jenny's surprise going-away party.

My day really got exciting at Olomana. Now I know what you're thinking, "what's so exciting about playing at Olomana?" and the answer would be nothing really. Olomana is a nice course, but I would daresay it's not very exciting. However, I'm not really sure if you've been following the local news here in Hawaii, but there's a certain Presidential candidate that's from here and is here on vacation. So I guess what do Presidential candidates from Hawaii like to do whilst on vacation in Hawaii? You guessed it, he likes to play golf at Olomana. Of course, the "he" I'm referring to is Barack Obama.

When we first got to Olomana, my bonus dad, Pat saw a news vehicle and thought out loud, "I wonder if Obama's playing here? He did bring his golf clubs and he did say this was his favorite course." But we thought, what are the odds of him being at the same place as us? Apparently they're pretty good. By the time we found a parking space and got our clubs we noticed in addition to the Junior Golfers, there were also some Secret Service around! Pat went into the pro shop and jokingly asked when Obama would get here. Much to his surprise (and delight) the lady answered, "he just called and he's on his way."

So much for a quiet round! Right after we left the pro shop he walked right past me and went in to pay for his round (I'm guessing). I was on the phone with John-John at the time and I explained to him that I needed to hang up and go meet the Presidential candidate! Alas, there are no pictures of him and I because when I asked him if I could take a picture with him, he politely declined stating that if he let me take a picture with him then everyone else would want a picture too. I guess he was right, but I think I could've done it on the sly as not to draw attention to him (although he would later attract plenty of attention).

Here's the Senator signing autographs

As luck would have it we were in the group right in front of him. We were hoping he wouldn't be in a rush and bomb us with balls (he didn't). In fact, it was just the opposite. His group kind of played slowly and we eventually pulled away. It was a bit unnerving having the Secret Service constantly coming up to us to clear the fairway and make sure everything was safe.

The Secret Service (notice there golf clubs are nonexistent, just like their senses of humor)

Of course the media was there too. They were very polite as the golf course wouldn't let them on the property. They just had to wait by the 10th tee until Obama came around.

They told me they would put me on the news...they lied

We did have lots of fun though. Bob jokingly asked if there were more Secret Service around. I told him a surefire way to find out would be to start throwing golf balls at Obama or riding straight toward him in a menacing fashion and then wait to see who jumps out of the bushes and takes him down. Unfortunately no one was willing to try (not even Mikey). Because he was playing pretty slowly (and we were thankful for being in front of him and not behind) he didn't even finish his round.

Bob snapped this shot of him with his cell phone as they were leaving the golf course

Just think some people waited for hours just to see Obama at Keehi Lagoons when he first arrived. Also, tonight is a major fundraiser for him. The cost to go to this private sold-out fundraiser is $2300 a person. If you want to meet him in person you'd have to pony up another $10,000! For the small price of a round of golf, we got to meet him (shake hands, chat, etc...) and save $12,300 in the process! That's why I love golf.

Even though I didn't get a chance to take a picture of him, I did end up on the news. As you watch the video look for Pat, Mikey and myself. I appear at around the 45 second mark. I'm the dude with the white shirt with blue sleeves patting him on the back. And no, I didn't get tackled by the Secret Service...I love America!

To view the rest of the pictures of the day click here.

Collision Next Wednesday

2008-08-12T17:33:00.002-10:00

Just a reminder, Collision is happening next Wednesday, August 20 at Kakaako Park. Be there!

Eat Your Heart Out Ken Burns

2008-08-07T12:39:00.003-10:00

Last night we were talking about the "Ken Burns" effect with Macs. Ken Burns, if you don't know, makes documentaries (he's done Jazz, the Civil War, Baseball and a whole slew of others). The reason we were talking is because Tricia, a girl in our ministry, wanted to make slideshows.

Well, I found this other site that does slideshows called Animoto. They're a bit edgier than the nice slideshows created by Photo Story 3. I do like Photo Story 3 for weddings and whatnot, but Animoto does really well with more upbeat type things. The only thing is that Animoto cost $30 a year and Photo Story is free.

Check out this slideshow I made with Animoto using last year's flag football as the subject.

Eh, Malama ka Aina!

2008-08-02T19:04:00.004-10:00

Today we decided to give back. Give back to the aina that is. We wanted to do something that would help our community so what better thing to do than to "Bash the Trash"? In partnership with our church, Hope Chapel Kaneohe Bay, we did a Kaneohe cleanup on Kamehameha Highway between Likelike Highway and Haiku Road.

All I can say is that people, not everyone, but enough of them, are slobs. I mean, we only picked up trash on one side of the street (don't worry, there were other teams doing the other side) for about two and a half blocks and we picked up three trash bags of trash. Three full bags, not partially full. And, to even make matters worse, we got a block in or so and these guys in a van pull up and tell us that they already covered the rest (so most of what we picked up was after they had already scoured the streets once)! Whew! Why can't people just clean up after themselves?

You're never too busy to flash the shaka!

Since most of us didn't want to bend over all day to pick up trash, Krystal and Mel came up with a great idea. They wanted to make pokers to stab the trash with out of broomsticks and nails. I asked them how they were going to attach the nails thinking they were just going to hammer them in and then cut off the head, but they had a far superior technique. They were going to use duct tape. Not regular duct tape mind you, but hot pink duct tape. I guess if you're going to pick up trash you might as well make a statement out of it (plus the broomstick was bright blue).

Notice the double-barrel action?

After cleaning up a relatively clean block, we got the next block and found a whole boatload of trash in front of a popular local eatery. In addition to all the trash we even found an entire roll of toilet paper. Not the small home rolls mind you, but an industrial, commercial roll. We were going to throw it away, but Uilani mentioned that the homeless people may have left it there for their own personal use. Sounded reasonable we thought, so we just cleaned up around it. Everything was going fine (as fine as trash cleaning goes) until Leilani mentions, "I wonder if that roll is here because the homeless people use the bathroom right here?" Well, thanks Leilani for that wonderful thought. That pretty much grossed everyone out and no one wanted to pick up litter in that particular spot any more.

See the roll by Keao's feet?

Notice how Jenny is now outside on the asphalt (thanks again Leilani)?

But the great thing about doing community service like this is that everyone can get involved. Uilani brought her kids, Koko and Hao.

Here's the cutest trash picker-upper

It wasn't all fun and games though. We did find some pretty interesting and disgusting things. In addition to finding tons of cups, bottles, a jillion cigarette butts, a couple of pairs of shoes and a car seat, we also find this little gem.

It was determined that this was biodegradable so we left it there

But overall, it is satisfying to see the trash in your community cleaned up. Even though other people don't necessarily care about what Kaneohe looks like, it is gratifying to know that there are people out there that do want to malama ka aina (take care of the land). I just wish that for every person that consciously littered (because there is no way some of these things were just accidentally dropped) there were a few vigilantes of justice that would find them and thrash them good (just kidding...sort of).

Before

After

To view the rest of the pictures click here.

If They Could See Me Now That Little Gang of Mine

2008-07-28T19:33:00.003-10:00

Happy Anniversary Keao!!! Today Keao and I celebrated our one year anniversary. We actually celebrated last night with a night in Waikiki, but since it's a leap year this year, a full 365 days did pass and today is actually day 366 (but who's counting?). I can't believe this year has gone by so quickly. It just seems like last week we were buying our first Christmas tree (Keao wrote about it here) and then heading to N'awlins for the Sugar Bowl! But seriously our first year was filled with so many highlights and absolutely zero lowlights. It's been a wonderful year.

So last night we decided to go to Alan Wong's for dinner. My classmate, Dr. Janel, and her husband, Dr. Matt, gave us a gift certificate as a wedding gift so what better occasion to use it? When I made the reservations they asked if we were celebrating any special occasion. Of course, I told them we were celebrating our wedding anniversary (I was kind of hoping they would give us a free dessert or something, but no such luck) and asked if they had a dress code (gotta ask right?). They asked me to wear a dress shirt, slacks and a dress shoes and they just asked Keao to look pretty (no problem there). So we arrived at the restaurant and I thought, "so this is how the other half lives..."

When we sat down and got our menus, I figured out why they asked if we were celebrating anything special. Can you figure it out as well?

They put our names on the menu...how cool is that?

The restuarant was really nice and well set up. It was busy yet relaxed (and it was quiet enough to have a nice conversation). I always judge a restaurants service by the water test. If my glass ever gets empty then they fail the test. Alan Wong's did not fail. They kept my water full and my bread dish (they literally had a waiter walking around giving us hot rolls as soon as we finished the one we had).

The bread was great, the chili-pepper butter was better (but the company was the best)

The menu was a little overwhelming because they had so many great sounding selections. I wanted to try a little of everything, but I didn't think I could finish everything so I decided against ordering multiple items. We did, however, order an appetizer to share and then an entree each.

The Char Siu Quesadilla was the perfect blend of sweet and savory

Keao ordered the Seafood Bowl (look at the lobster, crab, shrimp, scallops and clams!)

I had the Surf 'n Turf (which included lobster bisque and a lobster tail on a the steak)

We were so stuffed we couldn't even order a dessert! It was okay though because I had a little dessert planned for later in the evening (it's not what you're thinking sickos). When Keao and I got married, we had our reception at the Officer's Club on the Marine base. But, because we had a lunch wedding reception we had to leave by 3:00pm and we never got to eat our cake (or cut or serve it). Thanks to our friends Derek and Kristie our cake (the whole cake) has been patiently sitting in our freezer waiting for the day that it would finally be eaten.

So being the traditional guy that I am, I brought the cake with us. Keao didn't want to eat it, but I kind of forced her to eat some. It is, after all, tradition.

Even after a year, it still looks delicious

Well, one year down and a lifetime to go. I'm totally looking forward to it!

Bathroom Comics III: the Dating Edition

2008-07-23T15:46:00.005-10:00

One part of my job that I absolutely love is when people fall in love and start dating. It's so nice to see love in the air and men and women figuring out that the opposite sex do not always think alike. Actually when I see that last part in action it reminds me how happy I am to be married knowing that I won't ever have to go through the whole dating process ever again (just one of the many perks to being married).

With that said, much has been written about the different way men and women see the world. Many a comic has built their entire career exploiting these differences. Tim Allen and Ray Ramano immediately come to mind. In fact, one time Keao and I went to watch a stand up performance by one of her favorite comedians, Sinbad. I won't get into details (ask Keao) but she tried to rat me out and say how I'm always late for things and it completely backfired! So much so that the Supernanny made her apologize to me! What a great evening...

But I digress. I remember one time reading a Far Side comic in which there's a dude in his bed getting ready to sleep and he's pondering if this particular girl is thinking about him. The thought bubble read something like, "I wonder what she's thinking about, I wonder if she's thinking about me? I hope she's thinking about me..." Then there's a picture of the girl in her bed and she's thinking, "You know, I really like vanilla". I think that sums up the great divide that's between men and women. I tell you, it's amazing anyone ever gets married...

Just one example of when good intentions aren't well received

This reminds me of some people I went to high school with...

This was me in high school (except a lot cooler looking)

Big Boxes are Fun!

2008-07-17T15:29:00.003-10:00

You know there's something kind of special about those old mom and pop stores that are disappearing way too fast. I remember going to Arakawa's as a kid buying my very first baseball bat, glove and cup. Years later who would have thought that I would end up sitting next Mr. Arakawa (of Arakawa's) at football games? He's such a nice old man. It's sad to see men like him go out of business because they can't keep up with the Wal-Mart's and Costco's of the world.

So today I had to go to Costco to buy some things for the Courtyard Cafe. No big deal right? I mean it's Thursday and it shouldn't be too crowded. WRONG! I didn't realize it, but today was the first day of the coupon sale. Augh! It was so crowded. It was like Christmas time crowded. There were cars waiting for (stalking) people to go to their cars and leave so they could take their parking space.

Well, after driving around for a bit, I found a good spot (kind of far but in the shade) next to the cart return. Nice! I only drove around for 5 minutes and I just happened to see this guy leaving. It was almost too good to be true! No one was around and he was leaving and so I turned on my blinker and got set to snatch a good spot. Actually, I did get the spot with no problems (see: no drama) and I went into Costco to buy my things.

I've always wondered how the parking lot can seem so crowded and yet the store doesn't seem crowded at all. Not to say that the store was empty, but it didn't see too bad. Apparently everyone was leaving when I was shopping. I didn't think about it at the time, but everyone leaving probably left with shopping carts and those shopping carts have to go somewhere. Well what do you think happens when that little cart return fills up? I'll tell you, it overflows! This is what I saw when I returned to my car from shopping for 20 minutes in Costco:

Not just one, but like 20 people decided to leave their carts right in front of my car!

I couldn't believe that people could be so thoughtless! How did they think I could get out? Would I crash through like Knight Rider? Of course not! I mean, even if I could move the carts where would I put them?

With a silent sigh, I had to walk all the way back to Costco to find a parking lot attendant to move those carts. Here's a better view so you can see how blocked in I was.

If only I had turbo boost...

But of course there is the funny side of being a big box retailer. Sometimes you have to move so much inventory and they're in such big boxes you don't really care what hits the floor. I mean, it could be in good condition or bad condition. It could be properly marked or improperly marked. In case you're wondering what I mean by improperly marked, I saw this little gem at Sam's Club.

Not real sure what they're selling, but I don't think I want any

I bet that kind of stickering never happened at Arakawa's (at least not on Goro's watch).

Well, hopefully I'll be able to share with you what has been happening the past few weeks. It's been busy. I did see a Tiger Shark when I went diving (no, I didn't have to cut anyone and swim away) and I also spent a day at the Children's Church camp. I'll try to post more pictures and stories soon. Until then, go buy some Jelly Ass and bring it to church so I can sample.

Taking You Back to the Old School Cause I'm an Old Fool

2008-07-08T15:36:00.006-10:00

One of the nice things about growing up in a church and being an active part of a youth group is having your life fairly well documented through pictures. Every now and then one of these old pictures will pop up and someone will send it to me. I suspect that they are probably cleaning up around their house and they stumble upon it and since I'm in the picture they can't possibly throw it away and therefore they feel compelled to pass it on to me.

When I was in high school I was part of a singing group called Soldiers of Light. SOL, as we liked to call it, comprised of some of the better singers at Hawaii Baptist Academy (we had to audition to get in) and our mission was to spread God's love through singing. We mainly sang at different churches and other Christian venues and we even went on tour to Kauai and the Big Island.

Every year we were encouraged to audition for the Hawaii All-State Honor Choir. I don't want to brag, but every year I auditioned I got in. I didn't go my sophomore year because I didn't know anyone else going, but I did attend my junior and senior year. It was a blast. For one thing you got to meet people from all over the state. It was really fun going to different places and seeing your friends that you made.

The most fun part about the choir was the camp. For three days straight all we did was sing, sing and dream about singing. We were sequestered in the hills of Makakilo at Camp Timberline being directed by world class choir teacher Dr. Rodney Eichenberger. For a kid from a small, private high school it was a blast!

Well a few weeks ago, my friend Kelehua sent me a picture from our senior year in high school. Although Kelehua went to a different school we went to the same church and knew a bunch of the same people. You'll notice that we're wearing the same sweatshirt (from a church camp called Revolution State). Ahh, those were the days.

L to R: Eric, Kelehua, me, Amber, Janel, some dude, Deanna, some girl. Keiko, two other people

I also dug up a picture of my friend Ted when I think we were in 9th or 10th grade. This one is from Ben Parker elementary when we used to have church in the cafeteria. Since we were in a school we had to set up and break down church every weekend. I'm sure this is from a Sunday night when we were breaking everything down.

We were a lot smaller back then (well one of us anyway)

Although this is not super old school it has a lot of old pictures in it. Keao and I celebrate our first wedding anniversary later on this month and since not all of you attended out wedding I thought I'd show you the slideshow that we showed at our wedding. It's in two parts with mine being first and hers being second. In the upcoming weeks I'll try to post some pictures from our wedding and our honeymoon since most of you have never seen any of them (they're hidden safely on a disc somewhere secret). For now enjoy...

Scott's portion

Keao's portion

Some Random Articles Found on my Google Reader

2008-06-25T11:23:00.002-10:00

Ah the joys of Google reader. If you have gmail (and in this day and age, who doesn't?) you may have noticed a row of words in the upper left corner of the your screen. Among the Calendar, Documents, Photos and whatnot there is also a Reader. So what's a Reader you may ask? Well, for the longest time it was a great mystery as to what the Reader was and what its purpose was. Thanks to Jenny, I have found the joys of Google Reader.

In a nutshell, Google Reader allows you to subscribe to different feeds on the internet and it squishes them all in one place so you don't need to check 15 different blogs, news sites and other oddities online every day just to see if there is something new and exciting. It does it all for you! Amazing!

Have you ever seen the youtube video that shows an amazing catch by a ball girl? It has gained so much hype that they were talking about it on ESPN radio this morning and a certain pastor even stopped by my office to show it to me. If you haven't seen it here's the clip that's generating so much publicity.

But back to my Google Reader. So one of my subscriptions is to Snopes.com which is an urban legend website. Whenever you get one of those emails with like 2000 forwards on it you can check its authenticity on Snopes (no, Bill Gates is not giving away money just for forwarding an email to all your friends). So imagine my disappointment this morning when I found out that the ball girl video is a FAKE! What a bummer. On the other hand, it was a very good job of video editing. Oh well, either way it's a cool video even if it is fake. Next thing they'll tell us is that Santa Claus is fake too.

The other rather amusing article I found came from a recent blog I've discovered called Stuff Christians Like. You should check it out (or even subscribe to it). Today's article was about Christian dating (more specifically Christian breakups) and since I'm a Singles and Couples Pastor I enjoyed it immensely. If you have time, read it and check out the truth of it all.

Bathroom Comics II

2008-06-18T11:31:00.004-10:00

Wow, what a busy couple of months. Keao and I have had two of the busiest months I have ever had in my life and it ain't over yet. For instance since the beginning of this month in addition to our usual MiniChurch on Wednesday night, church on Friday night and hang out on Sunday night we've also been on two double-dates (with Justin/Megan and George/Dina), two weddings (Tom/Grace and Daniel/Erin and we have three more to this month alone), throw in there a belated Mother's day dinner, Cirque Hawaii, a bachelor's party and preaching (one more to go this Friday) and you have got yourself one busy month. Not to mention last Saturday...Saturday started with a Walk for Autism then 18 holes of golf in the midday heat followed by Keidi's going away party. Yup I need a vacation. The only problem is there's no time for a vacation. I have too much to do. *sigh*

Well, here are some comics that will hopefully brighten up your day. Enjoy.

This is exactly what runs through my head everytime is see these guys...I'm just too scared to say it

Ted's birthday is this Sunday, I'm gonna try this to see if it works

Who you calling a donkey?

2008-06-15T20:56:00.003-10:00

So last Wednesday I finally went and played golf again. It's been a while since I've played and I had plans to play Pearl Country Club on Saturday so we decided to warm up at Pali. Now when we play, we have a rule that whomever has the highest score on the first hole has to keep score for the round. But we didn't feel it would be fair to make John keep score (since he doesn't really claim to be a golfer) so it was just between Mikey, Paul and myself.

Look at that smooth swing!

After the first hole, there was a tie for the highest score so no one was responsible for the scorecard. Actually, after the second hole the same thing happened. It wasn't until the third hole did we have a winner (or loser if you like). And as luck (or poor golf skills) would have it Mikey was in charge of the score card.

Mikey's swing was good enough to keep score

We were having a pretty good time playing golf, but it was brutally hot and humid. By the time we got to the 8th hole, we were all pretty beat. Now, next to the tee box on the 8th hole there are two Igloo's filled with ice water, but being pretty late in the day we weren't sure if there would be any water left. John got to the water first, so we asked him if there was any water in there. He shouted out, "No, it's pretty empty!"

He walked back and we asked him if he checked the other one. He replied no he didn't. So after our tee shots, Mikey and I head over there to check if there was any water in the other Igloo. Mikey got there first and I asked him if there was any water. He replied, "Yeah, there's plenty" and then he proceeded to basically pour water on the ground as I was walking over there. "Thanks a lot you ass," I shout to him.

"Actually," he said, "you're the ass. It's been my own private joke this whole day." He then handed me the score card and this is what I saw...

You can't tell from that shot, but I birdied the hole

What Can I Say? Chicks Dig Me!

2008-06-06T18:31:00.004-10:00

So almost exactly one month ago, my sister-in-law, Cassandra, gave birth to two wonderful twin girls. Keao has blogged about them and posted pictures so check out her blog to get the latest twin news (keaosunaoka.blogspot.com). So while Cassandra was in the hospital Keao and I agreed to watch Lauren, the twins' older 15 month old sister.

Well, I guess I must have done something to traumatize this poor girl because now, even a month later, she can't stand to be around me. Last week or so I had to go to their house to pick up some things and as I walked through their door, the minute she saw me she just collapsed on the ground and started crying. Unfortunately for me, Keao and Cassandra were not there to witness the scene.

Fast forward to today. I wanted to see if Lauren would have the same reaction or if she had forgiven me and was now ready to be my friend again. This time I was smart, I brought along a video camera to capture the epic scene. What do you think happened? Would we see smiles, cries or complete indifference? For the answer let's take a look at the footage. Ready? Okay, let's roll the tape.

Lauren's pure unadulterated response

So what can we learn from the tape? Let's break it down. First of all, she knows her name and responds to it well. Then, at about the 10-second mark she enters the hallway trying to see why she's being summoned. By the 13-second mark she realizes who's in the hallway with her and reacts accordingly. If you listen carefully you can hear the delight in Keao's laugh as she now truly believes that Lauren hates me. I also love the way she runs with both arms in the air at the 26-second mark and by 30 seconds she's already on the ground.

Actually, it's not that bad. Despite all the crying you heard on the video it's not like Lauren completely hates me. I just think that everytime she sees me in her house she probably thinks I'm going to take her away from her mommy (which is sort of what happened last time). We stayed at their house for a few hours and once she realized I wasn't taking her anywhere she warmed up nicely and was my friend. *sigh* Babies, so cute and yet so funny all at the same time.

Book 'em Danno!

2008-06-01T12:54:00.003-10:00

Last Friday I got to do something that I've wanted to do for a long time. After bugging Vinnie for over a year, he finally relented and took me along with him for a night on the town. In case you didn't know, the Honolulu Police Department has a ride-along program where you get to see what the police officers do. Apparently it's a popular program because they had a whole sheet of rules and waivers that I had to sign.

A copy of the rules

Unfortunately according to rule 5, I was unable to record any part of my night with a video camera or a still camera. It really was too bad since I did bring both a video camera and a still camera. They basically just weighted down my pants and added some extra bulge to my pockets. It's a good thing we didn't have to chase down any perps on foot because I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep up with all that extra weight.

The infamous rule 5

I'm not really sure what I can or cannot write about so if you want details about the night email me or call me and I'll try to tell you what I can.

Speaking very generally I did get to witness a multitude of different activities. We transported a suspect to the receiving block (I felt like Dog, the bounty hunter, except without the swearing, smoking or mullet), went to an unattended death (now I know what Keao sees on a regular basis), searched for a dude suspected of being in a knife fight (complete with the blue lights, sirens, screeching brakes and a near tasering), checked on a few complaints, had a car towed, checked on a guy passed out in some bushes by Sorabol and pulled over a few people.

The highlight of the evening (aside from the aforementioned) was a DUI. We checked in on a DUI and I got to witness a few of the tests that they run to see if you are indeed a little intoxicated.

The first test they ran was to see if the guy's eye twitch. Vinnie was trying to explain the scientific explation as to why your eyes twitch if you're drunk but I was too busy trying to watch the action to completely understand it. Apparently he failed test number one.

The second test they make you do is walk in a straight line for nine paces going from your toe to your heel. The guy tried really hard, but he almost lost his balance twice and instead of keeping his feet together and walking toe-heel, toe-heel, he just basically took really small strides. Strike two.

The third test was standing on one foot and counting out your time out loud. Unfortunately for our guy he failed that one too. He only stood for nine seconds before he had to regain his balance. Then later he couldn't remember how to count going from 18 to 22 and forgetting all the numbers in between.

One particularly funny moment came when the guy asks why there were so many cops for a simple DUI. He counted five cars and commented something like, "Isn't this a bit much? Why are there five cop cars? Is this necessary?" Then, pointing at me he asked, "And who's that fellow? Why is he standing there?"

I thought it was a valid question since I was just standing there watching what was going on. Vinnie, in his sympathetic manner just answered back, "Don't worry about him, we're not worried about him so you don't need to be worried about him. In fact, if I were you I'd just worry about the situation you're in now and not be worried about anyone else that's standing here."

Vinnie was right. He should have been more worried about the sitation he was in. I later found out that he failed his breathalyzer test so he did indeed have a little too much that night.

Overall, I must say, I do have a lot of respect for what Vinnie does. I'm glad I got to go out with him and see what he has to face on an everyday basis. I kept thinking, this is really dangerous. You don't know what kind of crazies are out here, any one of them could be carrying a gun. So thank you HPD for keeping our streets safe. It's a tough job and I'm glad that there are some good police officers out there.

When we're not catching bad guys, Vinnie and I enjoy fishing in Alaska

Nico's at Pier 38

2008-06-01T12:39:00.003-10:00

So the other day Steve and I went out to lunch. There's this place near the fish auction that he's been raving about so finally we had the opportunity to go and try their wares. It's called Nico's at Pier 38. It was really crowded at lunch so if you go there be prepared to fight for a table and stand in line.

A drink and a buzzer

Because you order in a small kitchen they give you a buzzer so you know when to pick up your food. It's not unlike the system we have at church where they give you a buzzer in case your child gets out of hand in the nursery. As you can see here, we had buzzer number 7.

Apparently Nico's is known for their fish dishes. This would make sense since it's right next to the harbor and the fish auction. When Steve, a fisherman, says it's good fish, who am I to argue? I figure he must know a thing or two about fish right?

The fishing boats are literally right across the street

Steve and I both ordered the furikake (a Japanese seasoning) crusted ahi (yellowfin tuna). They gave us a pretty good size steak and a scoop of rice and some Nalo greens. For $8.50 it was pretty reasonable. I had mine done medium and Steve took his rare. They are even earth friendly. For an extra 25 cents you can get a lunch container made from recycled materials (obviously Steve opted to save the 25 cents and screw the enviornment).

Furikaki crusted ahi

The mayonnaise based sauce that came with the fish complimented it perfectly. Overall it was a very enjoyable dining experience. We ate some good food and were completely satisfied afterward. It was enough food, but not too much. Just looking at the picture is beginning to make my mouth water. I guess I'd better go grab lunch.

Diving Three Tables

2008-06-01T12:18:00.003-10:00

So it's been awhile since I've updated this thing, but it's not for a lack of excitement going on in my life, it's just that I've been lazy planning and doing stuff so please bear with me.

A few Fridays ago, a bunch of us decided to go to Three Tables to do a short shore dive. Included in the dive were John-John, my brother Stanton, Keidi and her friend Christy and another diver from Keidi's boat named Paul. Kevin joined us on our second dive, but unfortunately for me my camera broke (but I fixed it last night) and I was unable to document anything but the first dive.

But it was a beautiful day. The sun was out and the water was flat. Perfect for diving. After going over a few safety issues (weight release locations and dive buddies and whatnot) we headed out to the sea. Things were going great until Keidi found a leak from one of her hoses. She was bubbling up hard and couldn't figure out why. After taking care of that (and by taking care, I mean she just didn't have any floatation) we went under.

Not long after going under, I discovered that my regulator was free-flowing. Basically air was coming out of the thing I put in my mouth and I couldn't stop it. So I headed back to the surface trying to fix the problem.

The bigger problem was nobody wanted to be my dive buddy. I mean we talked about it on the surface, but by the time we hit the water I guess I was the odd man out. I knew no one wanted to be my buddy because when we got back under the water, everyone was 50 yards ahead of me and no one bothered to see where I was. I could have been eaten by a shark for all they knew.

Dive buddies John-John and Stanton

Apparently when I was on the surface, Keidi's friend Christy decided to play a little prank on Keidi and attack her underwater. Only underwater people tend to look alike and sometime the distinguishing features that are so prevelant on land are not so underwater. So while Stanton was nicely minding his own business looking for fish, Christy, thinking it was Keidi, attacked Stanton. I wish I could have been there for that. I wish I could have captured the look on my brother's face. It must have been classic.

Christy (on top) finds and attacks the right person

Other than that, our dive was pretty uneventful. We when to the turtle cleaning station but didn't see any turtles there. That was kind of disappointing. The only real cool thing we saw was a small white tip reef shark. Unfortunately the water was a little dirty because of all our activity trying to get a look at it and it stirred up a bunch of sand and other debris.

Can you see the shark? Me neither...although it's right in the middle

To see the rest of the dive pictures click here.

Be Aggressive, Be, Be Aggressive

2008-05-17T21:50:00.004-10:00

So today we had a basketball day for our sports ministry. I'll write more about it later when I get the pictures. But amusing thing that happened today was the aggressive play of one Kevin Stem (I'll put his real name here so you know where to direct the hate mail). Now, all of us like to play and we all love to win, but sometimes you can just go too far.

I was passing the ball to Jenny, my teammate, when mean Kevin came in and decided that he was going to try to steal it no matter who was trying to catch it. In fact, he didn't even come up with the steal. I think he wasn't even trying for the ball. I think he was just trying to hurt Jenny. The proof is in the pudding. Watch as Kevin slams his sweaty body into Jenny and then notice that Jenny is standing there with her hands on her head in pain as Kevin merely stands there and laughs.

Mean Kevin clobbering Jenny

North Shore Ride

2008-05-10T23:57:00.004-10:00

Today I think we turned a corner. Usually whenever we do a motorcycle ride at church we normally have only one type of bike...Japanese. You know, Kawasakis, Yamahas, Suzukis and Hondas. Today, though, we had something different. For the first time at one of our rides we had something American...the iconic Harley-Davidson.

Actually the one on the far right is a Honda

This was actually a really fun ride. It sounded completely different from our other rides. Most street bikes have a nice engine sound that is higher pitched, there is, however, no mistaking the low-growl of a Harley.

As we headed out from church we went up H-3 and traveled to Haleiwa via Kunia Road. It's not the most senic ride, but Kunia Road mixed it up nicely. The weather was perfect (not too hot and not too cold) and the ride went really smoothly.

We actually had two new people so the company was great too. Carole brought her friend Jenny and Josh brought his friend Luke (they accounted for the Harleys). It took us around 50 minutes to get to Haleiwa and we stopped for a nice breakfast at Breaker's. It was good but the food took forever to come out.

Fun on two wheels!

Josh and I then traded bikes and headed home. Josh's bike is the yellow one behind mine in the picture above. I don't know if you can tell, but it's a '89 V-twin with an R6 front end. It's kind of a beast. It has a lot of torque and it sounds great. It's also a little thinner so it's easier to lean into the curves ("it wants to lean," says Josh). It also doesn't have any padding on the seat so it was like sitting on a hard board. Man, I felt every little bump all the way from Haleiwa to Kahana Valley.

Carole, me, Josh and Luke at Kahana Valley

It was a beautiful day and a beautiful ride. Next time you should come and join us!

Privacy Please!

2008-05-10T23:17:00.003-10:00

A few years ago, Russell and I went to a conference in Orlando, Florida. We didn't stay at the convention site because we made the decision to go too late to still get a good rate at the hotel so instead we stayed across the street at a Holiday Inn or something like that. Well everyday that we slept in too late (as deemed by our maid) she would knock once and then let herself in. Then she would mumble something about sleeping in too late while she opened the curtains to let some light in and ensure that we would wake up.

Well after a few days of this we decided to do something about it. Of course our ghetto hotel didn't have one of those "do not disturb" door hangers so we had to swipe one from our friends the Hoopers that were staying at the Sheraton. Although she never questioned where we got the "Privacy Please" door hanger it seemed to do the trick as the maid never bothered us while we were sleeping for the rest of the trip.

Russell, me and Lesa and Don Hooper in 2005

Fast forward to Friday, May 9, 2008. I've been having this problem with my left-eye so I've been having to use these medicated drops. Well, I get my prescriptions filled at Longs you know how they have that little line that's supposed to give their clients privacy? Well, let's just say it doesn't always work. Actually, let me take that back. It sort of works if you're trying to see someone's prescriptions, it doesn't work, however with auditory privacy.

As I was standing in line (behind the privacy line mind you) I couldn't help but overhear the conversation going on at the counter. There was this old man trying to get a prescription filled that was supposedly called in by his doctor. Unfortunately for him Longs only holds prescriptions for seven days and they couldn't find his prescription.

The nice lady at the counter was doing her best trying to find his medicine but she couldn't find it. She tried all the usuals, who's your doctor, when was it called in and so on. Finally she asked the all important question, what's it for?

I think this is what that privacy line is for. As she asked him for a description he kind of hung is head down and mumbled his answer. Of course, she couldn't hear him (or understand him) and so he said a little too loudly, "ANAL IRRITATION". I felt so bad for him. It's bad enough that you have anal irritation but to add insult to injury you have to say it really loudly so the world can hear and then they don't even have your medication. Now you're embarrassed and still suffering. I think they should have a whole privacy box so that not only can you not be seen but you can't be heard either.

This is Why I Don't Play Soccer

2008-05-07T22:13:00.001-10:00

Saw this video on ebaums, made me think of Kawika and his soccer loving ways. Plus it's only 18 seconds long so it fit with my short attention span.

Who knew soccer could be so dangerous?

Cinco de Mayo and the Twins

2008-05-07T18:35:00.003-10:00

Ahh, May 5th. For most of us growing up in Hawaii, we know this day as Boy's Day (now changed to Children's day). However, for some of our other friends on the continent this day is Cinco de Mayo (which cleverly enough means the "fifth of May"). On this day some 100+ years ago, something significant happened in Mexico's history. You can read about it here. Nowadays it's primarily a day to go to a Mexican restaurant and drink margaritas. Of course if we're going to any Mexican restaurant we have to go to Dina's La Bamba.

Actually, Dina asked me early in the month if I wanted to come and bring some friends, little did she know that "some friends" turned into 20 of us. Now, La Bamba isn't that big so it was kind of a madhouse. But once we all got seated and got our orders in everything was fine.

Personally, I really like the food at La Bamba. Generally I'm not really too much of a Mexican fan, but for some reason I really enjoy their food. I think it's because their specialty is take-out. If you don't believe me you can check out one of their menus. Lately I've been ordering the butaquito. It's a flour tortilla deep-fried and filled with some sort of meat (or vegetable filling).

Dural also likes the butaquito, this one is his

I guess because it was Cinco de Mayo the place was packed. I mean packed! There was a line outside that didn't move until after we left. I swear there were people there that were waiting before we got there and they were still outside after we left! I guess the only redeeming thing is that La Bamba doesn't sell any alcohol so you're allowed to bring your own. I think those poor people must have finished an entire 24 pack before they even got inside.

Jasen, Jenny, Keao and Keidi were all smiles (I think it's the guacamole on the table)

Poor Dina worked so hard. I felt so bad for her. She was scrambling to find everyone tables and chairs whilst waiting tables and trying to keep a smile on her face. What made it even harder was that most of our party knew her name and therefore would ask her for things instead of waiting their turn. Overall though I thought she did a very good job keeping her sanity and wits about her.

Kevin, Dina, me and Jenny (again)

See I told you she was cheerful. Here's a shot of the rest of our group. I know the picture doesn't do it justice, but man, it got loud. I mean really loud. I know that some people are loud by nature, but there were times when we could hardly hear ourselves think!

The rest of our festive party

And of course a big CONGRATULATIONS are in order to Cassandra and Deroy. They are the proud parents of brand-new twin girls! Keao and I are aunty and uncle again. The older one is named Cheyenne and the younger one (by three minutes) is named Cheyne. They are girls number 4 and 5 so now they can start their own women's basketball team (you can view their pictures on Keao's blog as soon as she puts them up)

So as we were waiting in the room for the babies to arrive, Deroy noticed that there weren't that many chairs. So of course, he asked the nurse for an extra chair. She told him to go to room 325 and check there. So he left and we went about our usual business. A few minutes later we all heard this strange humming sound. It was like brrrrrrrgh, brrrrrrgh. Ashley, our niece was like, "it sounds like whales yeah?" We all started laughing and then heard it again. So strange.

A few moments later the door opens and Deroy is standing there with this huge chair. He remarks, "ho, this chair is heavy!" That sound was him dragging that chair all the way from room 325. So funny! We all couldn't stop laughing. But anyway, the babies are really cute so make sure you check out Keao's blog later.

Those Funny Nihonjin

2008-05-04T07:54:00.004-10:00

Well it's Sunday and I'm sitting at home. You may be wondering, "Why aren't you at church?", after all it is a Sunday morning, a time that is traditionally set aside for church services. Well, the answer is that I have a bum left eye. Actually, sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning, I managed to scratch my eye bad enough that my eye doctor said it's like I have an ulcer on my eye ball. So I'm sitting at home because I eye is super red and sore (it's not pink eye and it's not contagious) and really sensitive to light. Maybe I'll have Keao take a picture of it and I'll post it sometime.

But on Friday night we went to Bob's Big Boy after church (this is becoming a favorite hang out of ours) and we started talking about those crazy Japanese game shows. Some of them are actually games, while others are just pranks and what not. So for your viewing pleasure here are two of my favorites. Mind you, there are many more types of shows and if you go to youtube and type in Japanese pranks or Japanese game shows you're bound to find a plethora more. I hope you find them as entertaining as I did.

In this one, a mob of 100 randomly chase people down and do crazy things

This one is long but stinkin' hilarious