Thursday, October 29, 2009

Our Express Shipment arrived today - mostly last minute items that we forgot to include in the big shipment. Our silverware and cooking utensils are all washed and put away! We have a TV and a fan! Only a few more days until we have our bed and ALL of our stuff!

The view of the Mountains and Golf Course


 The Living Room / Our Make-Shift Bedroom
 
 The Bathroom
 

The Lanai
 

View of the Tennis Court and Pool from our Lanai
 

View of Waikiki from our Lanai
 
 

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We will both be walking in the Juvenile Diabetes Walk for the Cure on November. 14, 2009. Please help us both reach our goals of $300 each and support our team Hawaii Terps! Mahalo!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Waikiki Skytower

Aloha! Today we turned in the keys at Kaiolu Sunrise and officially moved into the Waikiki Skytower. I have been scrubbing the place down since 3:30 today. Tony is on his way home from work and we are headed to Target (greatest place on Earth) to pick up some essentials that were not shipped, and some that were shipped and we cannot wait for - like a bed (buying an air-mattress)!!!

Our Express Shipment is coming tomorrow around 2pm - which has a small TV, 2 settings of plates/bowls/cups, a fan and some other miscellaneous items.

Our big shipment is currently scheduled for Monday, at which point we will have all of our belongings - including a real bed, our TV, and all our kitchen stuff! Once we have everything and it is all set up, it will really feel like we live here. Then everyone can come visit!!

Rusty really likes the new place!



We love and miss you all!
xoxo

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We will both be walking in the Juvenile Diabetes Walk for the Cure on November. 14, 2009. Please help us both reach our goals of $300 each and support our team Hawaii Terps! Mahalo!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Lease is signed!

We officially have signed a lease for an apartment! We have an ADDRESS!!

In the process of moving all of our belongings that we have here so far from Kaiolu Sunrise to our new home at the Waikiki Skytwower. One more drive and a walk with the surfboard to go. Our "Express" shipment is being delivered on Thursday, and Tony will find out the schedule of our big shipment tomorrow.

Check out the view of the Mountain and Golf Course from our window!! 


Shutting down and packing up the computer! Pictures to come once we get settled in!


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We will both be walking in the Juvenile Diabetes Walk for the Cure on November. 14, 2009. Please help us both reach our goals of $300 each and support our team Hawaii Terps! Mahalo!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Weekend Update


Aloha!  Hope everyone had a good weekend. We did! On Saturday afternoon we went to the Hawaii Theatre and waited in line for 2 HOURS to get tickets to see Jack Johnson. He is performing only two shows on November 13 and 14th at the Hawaii Theater to showcase his new CD and DVD Release En Concert. All proceeds will go to his foundation he formed, Kokua Hawaii Foundation

The line at the Hawaii Theater...


 A couple of fans in front of us even brought their adorable 9 month puppy Winnie.


Tony bought me a Hawaiian shaved ice to help with the heat!

We got our tickets for the Friday night show! Can't wait! 

Last night we went to dinner at Tanaka of Tokyo, another hibachi grill. This time we had a much better experience!!


The restaurant is on the 3rd floor of the Waikiki Shopping Center. The hibachi area was pretty big, and well decorated. Everyone at our table, besides me and Tony, was from Japan, so our chef Sean had to repeat everything in English to us after he explained to them in Japanese. He was very entertaining. The food was DELICIOUS! We still miss the white sauce that was served at Sakura, but the two sauces were pretty good especially when mixed together. We shared the Shrimp entree and the Filet entree, and the Scallop appetizer.


Sean, our chef. 


 
After dinner, we went upstairs to the 4th floor of the Waikiki Shopping Center and went to Big Kahuna's Island Adventure - a 3D Neon and indoor mini golf course!

Check out my sweet 3D glasses!


The 3D glasses made it a little difficult to see the holes, so they only made it through a couple of holes! Tony of course beat me by a few strokes!

Afterward, we caught a site we had never seen before... Usually there is a guy painted in Gold or Silver, or in an Elmo suit, but on this night we saw Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse and then this guy... Mr. Newspaper. Very interesting site! 
 
Today we went to the beach and floated in the lagoon for three hours. We took a lunch break at Wolfgang Puck's Express for a delicious pizza!

Tomorrow we are hoping to decide which apartment we will be moving into this week - the one at the Kaiolu Sunrise or the one on Cleghorn Street... More to come on that though! Tonight, we went to Walmart, in Honolulu, to pick up some cleaning supplies for where ever we move to. This was a first and a last - this was the most crowded and obnoxious Walmart I have ever seen! There were 25 people in the "food" aisle that had only milk (reasonably priced), cheese and hot dogs. All with carts, and no one moving! Crazy!

Big week to come, I will write more tomorrow! Goodnight and Aloha!
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We will both be walking in the Juvenile Diabetes Walk for the Cure on November. 14, 2009. Please help us both reach our goals of $300 each and support our team Hawaii Terps! Mahalo!

Monday, October 19, 2009

Saturday night we went to Tiki's Grill & Bar finally. This restaurant was right down the street from the Hilton Prince Kuhio and we were saving it for a good sunset dinner. We walked down to Waikiki beach and ended up watching the sunset on the beach. It was gorgeous as always!!




oops forgot to zoom back out...
 

 
 

When we got to Tiki's there was no outside seating left - they were on reservation only - which I unfortunately didn't realize they were on www.opentable.com. We sat down and looked over the menu. We were a little disappointed because there wasn't anything really different from what we have been eating. We were thinking of getting an appetizer and then leaving, but there wasn't really an appetizer that we wanted either. We asked our super nice waitress, Nikki, what she reccomended. I said I liked seafood, but was not in the mood for fish. She said that they Scallops were one of the best things on the menu. Tony and I decided to share the Scallops and the Filet. Good choice. The Scallops were REALLY good, but every time we both eat scallops we have the Ben's Next Door scallops on a pedastool and nothing seems to compare. The filet was a bit charred for a Medium Rare steak, but was still pretty good. The whole experience would have been much better had we had an outdoor table to watch the sunset.

On Sunday morning we were able to watch the Raven's game on TV - although it was an extremely frustrating ending it was very exciting to watch on TV, at "home"!  Tony went surfing in the afternoon, and we did our Sunday ritual of food shopping at Safeway that evening. Lots of yummy dinners to be had this week.



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We will both be walking in the Juvenile Diabetes Walk for the Cure on November. 14, 2009. Please help us both reach our goals of $300 each and support our team Hawaii Terps! Mahalo!

Saturday, October 17, 2009

LET'S GO TERPS!

Today is the first University of Maryland Homecoming that Tony and I have missed in 8 years! We hope that our friends and family that are there are having an amazing day - and we are hoping for a TERPS Victory! The game isn't on TV over here - but I am watching the box score on ESPN.com. GO TERPS!

With Tony off work for Columbus Day this past Monday the week FLEW by! Last night we went to dinner with Claude (Tony's boss) at P.F. Changs. My Shrimp Lo Mein was yummy and Tony's Sea Bass was HUGE! It was an early night for all of us - Tony wanted to wake up early this morning because the waves are supposed to be overhead in Waikiki.

On our walk home we stopped at Pineapple County, which is a little clothing shop on our walk back to the apartment. They just opened a 2nd store right next door called something Outfitters (I will get back to you with the name.) They both have super cute clothing, but what won me over was the HAMBURGER PHONE - Only $29.99. I really hope that we need a phone to buzz in our imaginary friends to our apartment we get, so I can go back and buy this phone!



This morning Tony got his car inspected and registered with the state of Hawaii. Once we have a permanent address here in Hawaii we will be getting new Hawaii I.D.s! Tony left about 30 minutes ago to go check out the waves. He is really enjoying being able to surf whenever he wants!

Not sure what we are doing tonight - but I will post again later!

Love and miss you all!


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We will both be walking in the Juvenile Diabetes Walk for the Cure on November. 14, 2009. Please help us both reach our goals of $300 each and support our team Hawaii Terps! Mahalo!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Skype!

I am very happy right now - I just got to video chat, via Skype, with my parents, brother and my niece & two nephews!! Brady asked me when I was going to be home. Asked how many days. I got a nice serenade from Jordyn and Corey showed me his muscles and armpit "burps"! I love you!!
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We will both be walking in the Juvenile Diabetes Walk for the Cure on November. 14, 2009. Please help us both reach our goals of $300 each and support our team Hawaii Terps! Mahalo!

MAZEL TOV

CONGRATULATIONS to my
AMAZING, SMART and BEAUTIFUL
baby sister MANDI
on getting a Job Offer at
Mount Washington Hospital
in the Pediatrics Unit!






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We will both be walking in the Juvenile Diabetes Walk for the Cure on November. 14, 2009. Please help us both reach our goals of $300 each and support our team Hawaii Terps! Mahalo!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Ahi Poke

When we went to Safeway yesterday I bought my first tasting of Poke, which is VERY popular in Hawaii.
From Wikipedia - Poke (English pronunciation: /poʊˈkeɪ/) is a raw fish salad served as an appetizer, main course in Hawaiian cuisine. Poke is Hawaiian for "section" or "to slice or cut".
At Safeway they have at least 15 variations of Poke - I chose the Spicy Ahi Poke - Ahi is Tuna. The picture was taken on my blackberry, so it isn't the greatest, I swear it doesn't look like throw up!

It is cubes of fresh Ahi, mixed together with a spicy sauce. It is pretty good and very spicy! Poke only lasts for about a day after it is purchased because like sushi, it is raw! Another Hawaii First! Brian, I think you would LOVE it.



Here is a picture that I found on Google, served at many Hawaiian restaurants:


They even had an Octopus Poke - with little Octopus in it! I won't be adventurous enough to try that!

Here is a recipe for Poke that I found on Safeway's website for basic Ahi Poke.


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We will both be walking in the Juvenile Diabetes Walk for the Cure on November. 14, 2009. Please help us both reach our goals of $300 each and support our team Hawaii Terps! Mahalo!

Great Weekend

Aloha! Hope everyone had a good long weekend! We sure did.

Friday night, after Tony got off work, we met his boss, Claude, at the Yard House for dinner. We had a really good time, and seems to always be a nice crowd there.


Saturday afternoon, we went to the beach - I floated on Tony's surfboard for a bit before he took it out to catch some waves. While he was surfing I relaxed in the lagoon on my raft.

We took Rusty Kahala Super Grooming, Saturday afternoon, for a MUCH NEEDED haircut! When we first got there and we were filling out the paperwork the owner walked in with not 1, but TWO Silky Terriers! Rusty had a good time looking at himself. The two Silkies had the SAME personality as Rusty - very inquisitive, and very loving! Rusty has now met THREE Silky Terriers this week - when he had only met his "birth" mommy before this!!

We left Rusty with the groomer, and went to the Acura dealership in Honolulu, to get Tony's car appraised and look around their lot. We think we found a car that would be perfect for both of us - the Honda Ridgeline. Tony would be able to put his dirtbike in the back, his surfboards would fit for a drive to the North Shore, and there is plenty of room for YOUR luggage in the bed of the truck and for YOU in the back seat when you come to visit! We are doing some more research on the Ridgeline and will hopefully make a decision in the next week or so.


After leaving the dearlship we went back to pick up Rusty. They did SUCH a GREAT JOB and were SO Nice! We will definitely be going back!





(Rusty put his nose in Tony's bean dip)

Saturday night we were pooped from all the sun, so we went to Chili's in Waikiki for dinner - which does NOT accept the Entertainment Book coupon... We had a good meal, but our eyes were way bigger than our stomachs! But we couldn't leave without getting the Chocolate Molten Lava cake - mmmm....

Sunday morning Tony woke up to watch football, and I was a bad fan and slept through the 7am Ravens game loss to the Refs. We went to Round Table Pizza to watch the "afternoon" games at 10am. Seems to be one of the only bars that has the NFL Ticket - but the food and service were both good, and it isn't a long walk from where we are now.  Tony and I have started our own pool for each Sunday - whoever wins pays for dinner.

This week we TIED and split dinner Sunday night at Kobe, which is a Japanese Steakhouse, hibachi grill. We were not so impressed.  There was little EXCITEMENT - no flying shrimp... it was REALLY Dark! We started with a Shrimp Tempura roll that was pretty good - but each piece fell apart as we picked it up. Our food was okay, but it was a first and a last at Kobe! Luckily there are LOTS of other Hibachi Grills in Hawaii!

 

Today was Columbus Day, so Tony was off work and we went to the beach to relax in the lagoon. The weather, as always, was perfect. We took a break for lunch and went to Wolfgang's Express for a pizza. Afterwards, we returned to our floats and the lagoon.

Overall, a great weekend!


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We will both be walking in the Juvenile Diabetes Walk for the Cure on November 14, 2009.

Please help us both reach our goals and support our team - The Hawaii Terps! Mahalo!

We are both HALFWAY to our Goals!