Update

Wednesday: Lunch at Mama's Bakery (Lebanese deli) with HotFudge after furniture window shopping.

Thursday: 1st day of Comic Con with husband. Had fun hanging out in line to get in with Superman.

coolest costume ever: the Elvis Stormtrooper (will post his pic in a later blog)

Friday: dinner at Cucina Italia in Clairemont with Lotus and Shogun

Weekend:
Saturday: More furniture shopping but this time with Bert. Must replace 11-year old bedroom furniture set. Must step into the 21st century. If there's enough time, perhaps see "Clerks II".

Sunday: Comic Con with TC.

Drum roll please...

And the answer to the photo quiz, "Guess what this is?"


Peacock Poo.


Thane wrote: Giant sunflower seed
Missyshow wrote: Turtle turd (this was a step in the right direction)
Bert wrote: Hawaiian jalapeno


Peacock excrement courtesy of the wild peacocks running freely at the Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo on the Big Island.

Jury Duty NO!!!! Comic Con YES!!!!

Nerd that I am...Comic Con here we come! Looking for the new Optic Nerve #10 by Adrian Tomine (if it's there) and any new issues of Daniel Clowes' Eightball. I think I need #23. I'd like to get the screenplay for "Art School Confidential" as well. Hopefully I can also meet Martin Cendreda, a favorite (Filipino to boot!) comic artist (also from D & Q) again. Bert already has his wish list ready.

Today I went furniture window shopping with HotFudge in PB. Went to Underground and Garnet and also looked at Pangaea, a global accessories/art/clothing/knicknack store. It was fun as always hanging out with HotFudge. Lunch was at Mama's Kitchen on Alabama Street (off of El Cajon Blvd.). The weather was actually pleasant today, not the hellishly hot days we've been having lately.

The venue for Friday's dinner will be changed due to no reservations at the desired time due to South Park's "Walkabout" event. Dinner venues to be reviewed, mulled over, determined, and chosen later. Thanks Lotus for your superior brainstorming capabilities.

July 4th delicacy

Ever had one of these?



It's a Krispy Kreme burger which were consumed at the July 4th party at Lotus & Shogun's abode.

One of our friends bought a dozen Krispy Kremes. They were sliced in half and grilled, then filled with the patty and regular burgeraccoutrements. You'll notice that the sugary side faces down on the meat. I had one bite of bert's and it tasted much too sweet for me. I didn't like the sweetness of the sugar mixing with meat and ketchup! Ugh!

Calypso Cafe

Sunday night I went out with a couple of fellow educator friends. Normally there are four of us, but one was missing because her mother was in town. The venue: Calypso Cafe in Encinitas. It located on 576 N. Coast Highway 101 in Encinitas. Since we hardly ever go up North, this venue was chosen by one of my good friends and an excellent choice it was. The Cafe seemed like a cottage that was converted into a restaurant. Her brother had performed there before with his jazz band so she wanted us to check out the venue for ourselves. We were able to get parking on a nearby side street. There was live music playing as we walked in (bossa nova plus various jazz standards). The walls are painted with bright jungle/rain forest scenes. There are jewel toned glass lamps hanging from the ceiling. It was a relaxing atmosphere. The prices were not cheap, but they weren't wallet busting either. Figure about $16 and up for an entree. We were the only minorities there. I kept expecting to see Jeff Spicoli breeze through the door.

Our waiter started us off with their house sangria and bread with a very rich salsa which consisted of tomatoes, chilies, pineapple, balsamic vinegar, capers, green onions, and a few other ingredients that I couldn't remember. There was a bit of a kick to it and it tasted very good. For an appetizer, we ordered calamari with mango salsa. Calamari differs from place to place. Some serve it as 'rings' or 'strips', while others will serve the tiny squid tentacles and all. This version was like a triangular squid (sorry, but that's what calamari is, as ugly as it sounds) shaped candy corn, but huge. It was breaded and stacked pointy side up on spring greens. The salsa was also very good and spicy, but not so much to make you sweat. My friend who chose the place had the lobster ravioli which was in a tomato cream sauce. The raviolis were pillow-shaped and there were about five big ones in there.

Our other dinner companion had the salmon penne with white cream sauce. That was also very delicious. She said the pasta was cooked just the way she liked it, 'al dente'. The salmon was really rich tasting and I couldn't resist having a bit more of hers.

Lastly, my entree was the seafood linguine with my choice of a white cream sauce. Still pleasantly reeling from Vagabond's moules-frites, I chose this dish because it had mussels in it, as well as scallops, shrimp and salmon. The two roasted peppers were a nice touch and weren't even spicy at all. I ended up eating only half of it since the portion was pretty large. It made for a nice lunch the next day. Sorry for the crappy picture quality.

In all, it was a nice evening out with good friends who work in the same field. Most of my other very dear friends are not in education, so I don't bore them with my stories about school and students, etc. We four usually have lunch or dinner once a month to relax as well as gripe! We trade "war" stories and restaurant/book recommendations with each other. Next month is our missing person's birthday so we will take her out to dinner somewhere, perhaps a place where we've all never been before. Every dinner out with these ladies is always a culinary adventure.

1st Grade already...

School begins again

Today was TC's first day of school; she is now in first grade...In fact, I must pick her up now...will come back later...

reminder to post:

Lunch yesterday at Harar Ethiopian Restaurant with HotFudge and dinner a few nights ago at the Calypso Cafe in Encinitas...

Jury Duty vs. Comic Con

Sitting on the bench or walking the cavernous Convention Center?

Please please please please I hope I don't get called for jury duty on Thursday!!! We plan to go to the Comic Con - the first official day, not including Wednesday's Preview night which is reserved for those die-hards who get the 4-day pass. That's the night they get to snag all the good stuff first! But anyhoo, I hope I don't get called in! Otherwise, if I do, Bert gets the day off anyways and may go without his wife...me! :(

Not to worry, we will go on Sunday for sure with TC in tow, wearing her Supergirl costume. Last year that was her Halloween costume. None of that girly ass Disney Princess shit like all of the other girls in her class. She chose Supergirl. A noble, strong role model. I was happy to see that she was a noncomformist as well. In REAL LIFE girls should learn that they don't have to be weak, flirty/coquettish, and dependent on men to rescue/save them. I hate the fact that Ariel had to give up her underwater life just to be with that pussy Eric. Yeah, yeah, true love, schmoo love. Yeah, yeah, it was HER choice in the movie...Eric should have joined HER watery world and gave up his life.

There are a few redeeming qualities in Belle from Beauty and the Beast (although I don't like the underlying shades of interspecies bestiality). She was smart, independent (and of course, motherless like all of the so called Disney "heroines") and was not afraid to stand up to the boorish Gaston. Sleeping Beauty? I think playing catatonic and waiting for any old dude to kiss you and wake you from your deathlike slumber ISN'T the way to go. What if the guy ended up being a fat, ugly plumber and not a prince? What about Cinderella? So what if she had a SMALL FOOT that fit the glass slipper? Another Disney princess that had one good quality was Mulan simply because she knew martial arts and could definitely a guy's KICK ASS. That's it.

The hyperfeminization of these female Disney characters is despicable to me and all the marketing that goes with the Disney princess is of course, geared to make loads of $$$ from over supplicating parents who want to please their increasingly demanding offspring, in turn, grooming them to become horrid, greedy consumers who must have all things Disney like the Princess phone, make up kit, clothing, costumes gowns, and toilet paper with said likenesses.

The hypersexualition of other "girl-geared" toys of a crappy nature include the Aryan/anorexic Barbie and her brood of wanna-be multi-ethnic friends, who by the way, lack distinct ethnic features and look exactly like Barbie in everyway, except for the color of their skin and hair. I think Mattel believes that American girls don't want to play with kinky haired, flat nosed, chocolate/tan Barbies, with eyes other than blue; that's why you see those dolls in the toy outlets because no one wants them, along with the awful Bratz, the Baby Bratz (baby dolls that look like miniature sluts? hell to the NO!) and their mortal enemies, the My Scene dolls....Aaaargh!!!

By the way, I hope you recognize some of my sarcasm...But seriously, I HATE the Disney princesses to the nth degree.

Huh, all this because of a Supergirl costume...let me get off my diatribe now.

The King and the Mongoose

*The prolific nature of these posts is brought to you by yours truly, a bored educator on summer vacation with lots of time on her hands...

And this, everyone is King Kamehameha the Great himself...The first ruler of Hawaii.

According to Wikipedia: "Kamehameha, also known as Kamehameha I and Kamehameha the Great (circa 1758 – 1819), unified the Hawaiian Islands in battle and formally established the Kingdom of Hawai'i in 1810".

This particular statue is in Hilo. The white sign you see below is for Bert's co-worker who is Russian. There's a photoshopped picture of him holding the flag of his soccer team's rival. A bit of an in-joke among the co-workers.


At the Queen Liluokalani Botanical Gardens in Hilo, Bert saw a tiny mongoose on the black lava rocks below. Look closely in the middle and you can see him.

And he's off...

There he goes!

Another creature Bert saw at the gardens that day.

A bamboo grove.
History Alert: Queen Lydia Liliuokalani was the last reigning monarch of the Hawaiian Islands. In 1898, Hawaii was annexed to the United States and Queen Liliuokalani was forced to give up her throne. Queen Liliuokalani was deposed in 1893 by a group who advocated for the Republic of Hawaii. Considered a gifted songwriter, she penned the classic Hawaiian song, "Aloha Oe".

Nuts, collon and pineapple!

We visited my aunt and uncle in Kea'au, which is a small town 10 minutes away from downtown Hilo. They wanted us to see the Mauna Loa Macademia Nut Farm. There were hundres of acres filled with nut trees.


Hey, wanna hold some of deze nutz?

After a full day of sightseeing at the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, walking through the Thurston Lava Tube, visiting the Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo, etc, we had a delicious homecooked dinner at their place. My uncle grilled kalbi (Korean shortribs - beef), salmon, game hen, with sides of broccoli and garden salad, plus rice of course. The soda cans were Aloha Sun Passionfruit Guava.

At a local food market in Hilo, I spied these gorgeous anthuriums.

Here are some vibrant purple skinned onions, along with taro root (which is used to make poi, a starchy paste that tastes like glue, ugh!).

This ginger flower was near our hotel, right after a brief rainshower.

Bert's breakfast: Fried rice with two scrambled eggs, topped with grilled Portuguese sausage and green onions.
At Volcanoes National Park - one of the craters near Kilauea.

This following photos are from Oahu. This was the name of a local food joint we visited one night for dinner. My friend called them before closing (8 p.m.) and asked if they would stay open for us. Fortunately, they did, but I was wracked with trepidation, thinking of that one scene in the movie, "Waiting" where the cooks are all waiting anxiously for closing time but at the last minute, customers walk in. As revenge, the cooks do awful things to their food. I would hope that didn't happen with us. The crew seemed to be nice guys and they got our food ready quickly. I'm sure they wanted to get out and go home.

My friend had a Hawaiian plate lunch. This particular entree had a scoop of rice, a cup of poi, lau lau (chicken or fish wrapped in taro leaves and steamed), kalua pig (shredded and baked pork).

Another friend had the Loco Moco, a favorite of many. You can get this and other variations of the Loco Moco at the local Hawaiian food joints in San Diego like Da Kines, Island Boy Grille and L & L Barbeque. This is rice with a hamburger patty which is smothered in gravy and topped with two eggs of your choice. He chose a side of corn as well. When confronted with the heart attack qualities of his meal, he said, "It is what it is."

A sign we saw at the ubiquitous ABC stores (think of 7-11 but on EVERY corner). Yes, there were tons of Japanese tourists everywhere in Oahu. Hey, I remember seeing a sign at the Otay Mesa Wal-Mart that said, "Aceptamos Pesos"!

Also seen at the ABC store were these cookies with an unappetizing name, "Collon" (yeah, yeah, I know it should only have one 'l').

Another shot of another ginger flower near our hotel in Waikiki.

We visited the Dole Pineapple Plantation like any other tourist.

History Lesson Alert: Filipino workers were recruited since 1906 to work in the pineapple (and sugarcane) fields of Hawaii. They were called 'Sakadas' (government contract workers) and were recruited largely to supplant the Japanese and Chinese workers who, at the time, refused to work for low wages and were on strike. The Filipinos laborers worked long hours harvesting cane and pineapple in the hot sun for very little pay. Another example of an ethnic group being exploited as a cheap labor are today's Latinos who work in the agricultural fields in California and neighboring states. (okay, I'll take off my educator hat now).

I thought this was an unusual looking pineapple. This variety was from Vietnam.

The night view from our hotel room. We were on the 22nd floor of the Renaissance Ilikai in Waikiki. We had a city view; the street below is Ala Moana Blvd. This is the hotel made famous in the opening credits of Hawaii 5-0 where Jack Lord is on a balcony looking towards Diamond Head.

Guess what this is?

Hello everyone...can you guess what this is? Answer to be posted on Friday.

Photos from Hilo, Hawaii

Photos from the Hilo Market which we visited on our last day on the Big Island. Flowers like this cost only $5 a bunch. In San Diego, this would cost about $20. These are Heliconia.

Fresh vegetables galore! Chinese celery, malunggay leaves, bananas, tomatoes, potatoes, bittermelon, taro, bok choy and some other stuff I've never seen before.

Ahh, Hot Dog Musubi...only $1.50! Actually these hot dogs looked kind of freaky because they were very red! Seems like the Hawaiian chicken musubi was a popular item. Only 3 pieces were left.

Another tropical flower you don't see much in San Diego, the Protea:

Here are some mangos, papayas, avocados and breadfruit.

This guy was hacking fresh coconuts with a large knife and selling them for $2 as a drink. We bought one and couldn't finish it amongst the three of us. My aunt kept the husk because she wanted to use the buko later (young coconut meat).

The following are some photos taken when we visited the Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo in the Big Island on the second day of our trip. This is the state bird of Hawaii, the Nene. It seemed so sad as we walked by, crying and making a "Nay- nay" sound.


Beautiful flowers were everywhere at the Rainforest Zoo.

Interesting foliage this is. I looked it up and it is called Monstera Deliciosa, aka the Swiss Cheese plant.

Moss growing on the stone fence:

More spectacular flowers...orchids here:

I found this sign quite humorous. This was an ulo (breadfruit) tree. Funny, in Tagalog, ulo means 'head'.

Some wild pigs that were taking a nap: