Zippy's, the Cracked Seed Store, and statistical softare

June 7, 2012

I went to work a few minutes early this morning so I could enjoy the coolness and look at the pretty plants. I seen to put a LOT of plant pictures up here, but that is because there is such a huge variety and there is always something new I haven't seen. So this morning I took these pictures. There is this blooming cactus where the flower looks like a fabric/netting starfish or something. I posted the picture of it a while back but this morning I saw an unopened one. I wanted to put pictures side by side of the unopened pod and the flower. luckily, the cacti this morning had both!

Debbie-I took this picture specifically for you. I don't know why, but I just thought you'd like it. I was walking and I looked over and saw the moon still visible between these tall palm trees whose fronds were blowing in the breeze. It just seemed like something you'd like so I snapped this picture for you. I hope you can see the moon in the sky between the palms.

So I got to work early, a bit before 7am. The place was nearly empty so I had a few moments to take some pictures. This is on the floor below me, where there is a table with several plants.

I went into my office and turned on the light. I was pondering whether to just leave the door open for the breeze off the lanai or to turn on the a/c. I looked over and Susan had an empty coffeepot on her desk she uses for water. Sure enough, we had a guest. Rob-it is another leeezard! I don't know if it's a lizard or gecko, I don't know the difference and honestly don't care... It is some variety of lizard-critter.

So after saying good morning to the little lizard I got to work and entered more data into the HSDVFR. I am up to 38 cases out of 50. So I should be done tomorrow entering the data. Ann came by and we worked a bit on the demographics portion of my project survey. I'll make those changes tomorrow morning. All in all a quiet morning. Then we went to lunch! Let me say, one thing Hawaiians do extremely well is FOOD. Lisa had her car today so we went out to Zippy's. It was recommended that I try the Zip Pac. A zip pac has a slice of teriyaki beef (it was very tender and tasty), a slice of fried Spam (oh yippie... I did try it and it wasn't bad, needed to be a bit crispier on the outside for me to be happier) a piece of fried chicken thigh (good but not KFC level of yum) and a piece of hoki fish with a crispy panko breading (my favorite part - it was utterly delicious). Everything served over rice with furikake (seaweed powder with spices) sprinkled on top. It was a tasty lunch. I LOVED the fish. It comes with tartar sauce but I enjoyed the flavor too much to overpower it with tartar sauce. The yellow is  pickled daikon.

While eating I learned from Lisa that panko should actually be pronounced like pahn-ko with the accent on the ko part. It is a Japanese work that basically means small bread crumbs. Pretty cool. I'll try to remember. After food we headed to the dessert area of Zippy's - Napolean's Bakery. I was amazed to see a jello cream pie. Seriously? I couldn't believe it so I took a picture.

The guy behind the counter was kind enough to give us a taste of the haupia cake. I took a picture of the guy holding the cake. This prompted a discussion in the car about what haupia is and means. I linked the Wikipedia answer but I'll explain it here. Haupia is a common dessert here in hawaii. It is a coconut milk pudding, though it is often served in gelatin-like squares similar to blancmange. It originally was made with coconut milk mixed with arrowroot, but the arrowroot is harder to find now so people use cornstarch. It is very often used on white cake as a frosting, which is cool and very light and fluffy, yet not overly sweet like most actual frostings. It is often then sprinkled with shaved coconut. To make the squares, just add more arrowroot or cornstarch and it firms it into a more solid texture than can be eaten more like jello. All I can say is this cake was fabulous. Looking more in depth of the actual word components hau means cool or chilled and pia means arrowroot. So this is chilled arrowroot dessert - haupia. Anyway, here is the nice guy and the cake!

I also took a picture of the chantilly cream puffs, because they looked amazing. I didn't try one though. I need to go back and get one sometime!

Lisa got custard filled long john's for us to try. We have long johns at home, but not like these. The custard filled pastry is delicious. They weigh a LOT because they are filled to bursting with the custard. The doughnut pastry is very light and fluffy, sprinkled with powdered sugar. It isn't greasy or heavy at all. The custard is not overly sweet, but very cool and creamy. It isn't too heavy but has a smooth and delicious consistency. It was so incredibly good.

We went to Don Quixote's quickly to pick up a few items for me to send home to folks to try. No, I'm not spoiling the surprise by saying what I got. We also stopped in at what is known as a "Cracked Seed" store on the way back to the office. That is where you get the rice crackers and snacks, dried fruits with li hing mui, etc. Li hing mui is a very salty red powder, but it also has a sweet and sour tang to it. The lady in the store had samples and I tried several things. It is hard to describe, but it is tasty.Ann almost bought a bag of dried cuttlefish legs, I should have taken a picture! They are little dried squid tentacles. (Jeff - I can just imagine you turning green at the thought.) I don't know why it is the Cracked Seed store but I'll try to find out.

Lisa got a few different snack items and I tried a few different kinds (just a bite of each one) and then had a long john (see incredibly yummy description above). I am so stuffed I can't imagine eating anything else today! I didn't just eat all afternoon though,  Lisa and I were discussing the survey questions and actually working on the survey. She had some excellent ideas and suggestions. I think we need to get some more input and work on fine-tuning the survey for a bit. Ann agrees it is only a draft but we are eager to get it sent off to the IRB and get the process going. It is important to put the brakes on and make sure we have a good quality survey. I have many things swimming in my head tonight to think about regarding some survey questions. Good to ponder them and let my brain percolate a bit.

So a quiet night tonight, I'm going to relax and give my blisters a rest. I had many band-aids and neosporin on today, as well as socks and tennis shoes. That helped. However, the soles on both my tennis shoes are falling off! I need to figure out how to glue them back on or get some new shoes in a serious way. The ladies at work think I should use the tie-dye duck tape Rob sent and just tape them together. Real classy and so work appropriate. We may dress casually but I think that is a bit over the line. Rednecks R Us shoe repair, at your service ;)

Aloha!
~Melissa

P.S. - Debbie - in response to your comment from yesterday -
1) I had no idea you worked with SAS! We used some SAS in my biostatistics class. I find that SPSS is very user friendly compared to SAS. SAS requires that you enter nearly computer programming to get your data outputs. SAS is very much like using Excel in the ease of entering the data, but with more complicated data analysis options (at least in my little knowledge of it so far). It seems like SPSS is a great took for people who want to analyze data without the more complicated SAS procedures (and capabilities) that the Statisticians and Biostatisticians employ. That is just my thoughts so far.

2) I have used Survey Monkey a bit. I used REDCap for my big Komen project last summer. As a student at UK I was able to get access to REDCap and I was much happier with both the survey set-up and design and how easy it was to export the data into SAS or SPSS. I don't know if you're familiar with it but REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) was designed at Vanderbuilt University. UK is a partner and so students, faculty and staff who are doing research can apply to utilize it at no charge. I linked to the website so if you're not familiar with it then I definately suggest reading about it. A VERY handy bit of software. However, for this project we're using Survey Monkey. The Hawaii Dept. of Health has a license, so I am interested in seeing how it compares. The limitations on the free Survey Monkey account made it difficult to use but I should have more options with the paid account options.

3)I never really knew WHAT you did for the State, just that it had something to do with computers! Wow. Since I read your comment earlier I've had this response milling around in my head. I didn't know if anyone else reading might have some thoughts on SPSS vs. SAS or Survey Monkey vs. REDCap or other survey options so I included it here instead of as a comment. Thank you for sharing that, it has given me food for thought and helped me learn more about what you have done.

Aloha wau ia 'oe, malama pono (I love you, take care)
~Melissa