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

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

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

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

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

Eat Your Heart Out Ken Burns

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!

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

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!