The Brown Tree Snake. Hated by many for good reason.
I found this guy on my last trip to Guam, it really creeped the crap outta me! We definitely do not want these things in Hawaii!
Monthly Archive for May, 2012
Page 2 of 3
The Ckuckster brought over his little speed demon over to do some welding on the shock towers. He’s converting from torsion bar to coil over, which means the shock mount will be supporting the weight of the car, which it wasn’t originally designed for. For a little peace of mind he decided to complete the welding on the seams of the mount. 
A little clean up and he went to town with the welder. Scat slid by just as we were starting and laid down some metal also. No fabrication needed, so it wasn’t anything too difficult. Continue reading ‘Of Shocks and Batteries’
Once again, Nagoya’s Jiraiya is back at Shirokiya selling their ebi-tenmusu – mini musubi rice balls built around a small breaded shrimp ebi tenpura. For $7.95 USD plus tax you get six slightly-too-big-to-be-a-mouthful tenmusu and a scant pinch of kyarabuki (a tsukudani made from fuki, Petasites japonicus) – they’ve gotten pretty Chang with that. That’s about the going rate, since a pack of five at the Meibutsu Tenmusu Senjyuu at Nagoya Centrair is around 735-yen. The rice in the Jiraiya ones is a bit on the gummy side compared to Senjyuu, but that could be related to adapting to the loaner equipment in the temporary space. I do actually prefer the taste of the Senjyuu ones, but I’m not flying all the way to Nagoya on a whim for them! Continue reading ‘Jiraiya Tenmusu’
Jackie and Eric from Chinatown Boardroom dropped me a line last Friday that there was going to be an opening reception for Yumi at Mu’u Mu’u Heaven in Kailua. A First Friday art show that wasn’t downtown and was on my way home was very attractive, especially if I could check out some nice artwork and meet some old friends and hopefully make some new ones. Traffic was light on the Pali, and there was ample parking. The video crew that did the live feed for Fuyuki’s show were there doing an interview, and the same organizer dude that made the arrangements with the Boardroom last time was there on hand too. I wandered around the rest of the shop and gallery space until the shoot wound up. Continue reading ‘Yumi at Mu’u Mu’u Heaven’
Saturday night’s full moon Mariner’s Ridge hike was under cloudy skies with blustery Easterlies. My GPS says the distance was 4.03km, and the moving average speed was 3.0 km/h. Elevation gain was about 270m.
Vince will probably get a kick out of this. Dave at Mojo Tactical has them in stock. A cursory internet search indicates that they are from Orca Tactical, but I’m guessing they are not licensed. Quality is good. They are available only in the desert tan colorway.
Weekend started with finishing off the front end grill area of the Scat Sled. We knew what we were going to do so the work went faster. Chuckster showed up in the morning so getting the turn signal patch cutout, flattened and tacked in was done by lunchtime! The patch was soon fully welded in and by the end of the day all the center seams were also welded, and there was still daylight left! Movie here.
I wonder if for every dozen packs of Leffe Blonde they get one of the Brune. The Blonde is being carried by many supermarkets now, I first saw it at Foodland. But then one evening I spotted a sixpack of the Brune. Unusual, but I had a full stock of beer already so passed. I have never seen it again. Fast forward a few months, I see that Safeway is carrying the Blonde also, and then wonders of wonder I spy a six pack of the Brune. I do not make the same mistake & grab it. Turns out it won’t even scan at the registers!
Anyway, on to the beer. This Belgian abbey ale pours a dark brown with a moderately strong head that persists. Can immediately detect aromatics and alcohol, even though the content is only 6.5%. There’s a fairly strong spicyness then a subtle roastyness and a pretty smooth bitterness. There’s a bit of the syrupy going on. I actually prefer this beer as it warms up, it seems to mellow it out. Not huge ABV numbers, but for some reason these Leffe’s kick my butt! 3 out 4 monatsic monkeys.
Touted as a Pilsner style summer lager, pours clear yellow with strong head. Quite “dry”/karakuchi and a pretty strong bitter, but not very strong floral notes. It’s a good beer to acompany food with strong assertive flavors, but as a beer to just drink I’m not liking it as much. I’d probably give it the higher side of 2 out of 4 pilsy monkeys.
I was a bad boy today. Mojo Dave had a nice Jones Tactical belt in Multicam in large, so I jumped on it. I’m not going to get too heavy into the technical details, since you can go to the Jones website or probably find a boatload of reviews online. It is 1.5” wide. My waist is 34, and there is like another inch, maybe inch-and-a-half left on the loop Velcro for the adjustment tab. The body is made from heavy coyote brown webbing overlapped on both sides with printed Multicam webbing with the joint nicely hidden and finished. The adjustment webbing is 1” printed Multicam webbing with Multicam printed loop Velcro under the tail. The buckle is a 1” Cobra buckle. At $75 USD, it is quite spendy as belts go, more toward the price range of some designer Italian trouser belt than a run-of the mill single-layer scuba webbing tactical belt. The material and build quality justify the price in my opinion. Continue reading ‘Jones Tactical Cobra 1.5” EveryDay Belt’