from the twisted minds of snm
Well… it’s not poison.
Went to Makino-Chaya for lunch today.  They used to be on King Street, but now they are in Aloha Tower Marketplace. Gone is the “tabe-houdai table service” – it’s just a regular buffet now. There were some downtown office people and local buffet-hounds, but a lot of the clientele were the bus-in fresh arrivals from Japan who were a captive audience at ATM before the buses returned to take them to their hotels at check-in time. Continue reading ‘Ma-ma… Makino-Chaya’
Sheesh, look what happens when you cancel a ride, you go and buy bicycle toys instead. So what did I waste good money on this time? The latest bicycle light from NiteRider. Is this a guy thing? All the guys I know love flashlights. Back in the day, having a MagLite would put a swagger in your step. Getting yet another AA MiniMaglite stocking stuffer would never bum us out, you can always use one. When the tiny keychain LED lights came out, we thought it was a brilliant idea. You’ll find us drooling over finely machined pieces of manly agressive “tactical” lights that can curl the retina off your eyeballs with batteries that require fat wallets and last about as long as that money stays in those wallets. And then stadium light technology in portable form appeared, the first one to come out nicknamed the alien abduction light. If we were to find ourselves crashed in the deepest remotest regions of Africa confronted by aborigines ready to throw us into the evenings crock pot, what would we whip out? Well, lighters aren’t allowed anymore (did they change that again?), so it would have to be the trusty flashlight in the god fearing eyes! Perhaps its this primevel fascination, the defying of something so basic, darkness, with a creation of man, the flashlight.
The old Salomon boots died in Japan this September. The EVA midsole crumbled, leaving the rubber outsole detached from the upper back to about the ball of my foot. They stayed together long enough for me to get back to Hawaii without the sole becoming completely detached and making me look like a Charlie Chaplin character. Age was the factor here, not wear. The outsole was not heavily worn and hadn’t become hard with age yet. The Gore-Tex was still leak-proof and the leather was fine. The rubberized scuff-patch on the toes had started to peel and crack over a year ago. I picked up a pair of Danners for $140 to replace the Salomons, but thusfar haven’t tested them – hopefully they won’t be as slippery on snow and ice as the slick-as-$h!t Salomons were. Continue reading ‘Boots’
Got an early start to see the thunderbirds, maybe too early. So Taro and I stopped by Islands Burgers and got some soft tacos
I got the “Baja” soft taco, with a Newcastle
And Taro got the “Northshore” soft taco with a Widmer
It was okay, but I think I’ll stick to burgers there.
Taro: I’d have to concur. “Spicy” chicken? The spicy chicken at Jack in the Box is way spicier. We’ve done much better at Wayland’s. It was pedestrian. It fit the bill of not wanting something as heavy as a burger, but for the price would have liked something more substantial in the flavor department. Ah well, the heffeweisen was good, almost qualified as a Good Morning Beer for me as I’d woken up only a couple hours earlier. Good for a cheap buzz too as my stomach was pretty empty.
Rode Maunawili Ditch trail on Saturday morning. There was a fairly large crew: Jeff, Sara, Root, Ckucke, Danny, Ryan Higa, and myself. Yes, Ryan is back in town! He got in sometime around when we were up in Whistler. I talked to him a bit, but didn’t get to ask him if this was a permanent situation or not.Â
We rode up the road and turned right down Ditch. The climb up was a burner, especially off the start cold, but after Whistler, I couldn’t really complain. The Ditch trail was dry and fast. I hadn’t been there in several years, and it hadn’t changed much while I was away. We turned up a ridge trail that we had been on before that climbed up one of the fingers that the trail snakes around. The singletrack was a lot more settled in than I remembered, assumedly from use – it was newly-cut way back when. Continue reading ‘Ditch’
Ckucky, Root, Big Poppa (Chris), and I did a slightly-earlier-than-normal St. Louis F/R yesterday so we’d have enough light for some photos. It was Labor Day, so the earlier time frame was not an issue for anybody. It was definitely hotter even being just an hour earlier.
We dropped upper Dumps all the way to the log where we all discovered that the rain-soaked rotting bark was like white lithium grease spread all over the log. Pushing back up the side trail before the log, we went up past the inner loop and mainline to sideline and did the root drop jumps in the clearing.
Chris, Root and I hit St. Louis yesterday for some F/R.  The weather was nice all day, but as soon as we unloaded bikes at the top, it started to drizzle. The sky was blue over Manoa, but clouds were rolling in slowly behind us over the mountains. Intending to check out some of the stuff we saw last week, we dropped mainline. Rain-specked glasses and goggles immediately fogged,  keeping speeds down.  Dirt clung to wet bikes and shinguards like breadcrumbs and clogged tire knobs into dirt-slicks.  Continue reading ‘Panko ride’
On Sunday, I went to my cousins’ graduation party at the Hale Koa hotel, Waikiki Ballroom. Root knows which cousins they are – he saw them at Dangerway once when we were getting Saturday dinner ingrediments. Nicole graduated with a BA in something from UHM, and Chelsea graduated from high school. She’s on the cheerleader/dance squad, so she and a couple of her friends performed several well-choreographed sets (I wonder if Mitch’s daughter knows her?). Sorry – no pictures! Continue reading ‘Chelsea and Nicole’
Thursday evening dinner was Cafe Maharani. Been wanting to check it out for a long time. Site of the former Javarama by the Down To Earth in McCully. We used to be fixtures at Javarama. Cafe Maharani is an Indian restaurant crammed into that small space. I was worried about parking, but I found a stall in back, and Derek lucked out and scooped prime parking right in front. Checking things out from outside it was already pretty packed inside, wonderful aroma of spices waft out, and they are equiped with a tandoori oven, we were sold. We were told we would have about a 15 minute wait, so we took a stroll to Star to find some beer as Maharani is BYOB. Timing perfect, table is ready for us when we get back.
We decide to do the 2 person dinner combo which consists of samosa appetizer, choice of two entrees, rice & naan. 
The veggie samosa is a deep fried pastry stuffed with a curry spiced veggie filling, served with a spicy tamarind chutney, and a cool yogurt sauces. Both nice, but the tamarind sauce is wonderful. We do the eggplant tikka masala and chicken vindaloo our entrees. Oh, and this seems wrong, they have beef as entree choices. Continue reading ‘Most Advantageous’
I really like casual Friday. It’s one of those days when you can forgo the aloha shirt/slacks/dress shoes uniform and dress more how you want to. I was looking forward to this most recent casual Friday as I was going to wear my newest pair of sample jeans. I bought them at the most recent sample sale, and in all honesty, I didn’t need them, but for $25, I figured, why the heck not?
The sample size stuff all has a 34″/”L” waist. Depending on what it is, it’s either snug, loose or just right. Having learned my sample jean shopping error some time back, I decided to actually try them on before I bought them (genius, I know it!). Grabbed a nice, soft pair replete with zipper (button fly sucks, as far as I’m concerned) and tried them on. They fit good, albeit with some silly patch on the outside of a knee and some silly stiching. Yeah, don’t think so. Back at the jean’s rack, I found another pair, with a button fly but they’ve got that worn/sanded/rough look that’s all the rage these days. Hey, for $25, how can I go wrong? Â
Friday morning I get up and deal with feeding “the kid” his morning iron suppliment and bottle. Have to be out in Kapolei for an 0800 training session, so it’s kind of early for me. Pull the jeans on and..uh…stuck on my thighs. With a bit of wiggling, they get up around my thighs and I can button them up with no problem. Hum…guess they didn’t make these jeans for retired mountain bikers with big thighs. I look down at my pants and I can see my VPL. Bad, very bad. My underwear collection doesn’t deal well with this type of fashion emergency, so what’s a guy to do?
Go commando of course! So I spent the day being very careful to not to show ass crack as I bent over/squatted or really just moved at all. Dang jeans stop about three inches below my belly button, so I felt like a trashy school girl (except for the urge to wear lipstick, eyeliner and other assorted female accouterments). While being trained on a new computer system, I amused myself by counting how much change I had in a pocket. Despite having a short waist, the pockets were long and halfway down my thigh. Not wearing those jeans to casual Friday ever again.
 Moral to the story? If you’re going to be sitting next to a flaming coworker for eight hours, make dang sure your shirt covers your crack!