3 kitten day, beautiful drive and sizzling yumminess

July 30, 2012

What a day! It started early. I woke up at 6 and got ready for work. This includes the :I so hate this" shaving the legs process. Mind you, I loathe shaving to begin with since I am blind as a bat without my glasses. So this means I can't just shave in the shower. I have to sit on the edge of the tub and shave my legs with my glasses on, so I can see and not cut my ankle off or something stupid.

So anyway, I got ready and headed in to work. I arrived about 7:15 since my ankle was hurting and I was walking rather slowly. However, it was worth it! When I climbed up the stairs to my office I saw not one but TWO kittens next door. These kittens are ferals (wild cats that are not pets) that live under a building next to my office building. They are between 3-4 months old. I don't see them every day and even when I do see them I usually only see one. Today I saw them BOTH. They make me smile, so to see both was an extra special happy start to my morning. You can't see them well in this picture, but I know where they are so it is a happy thought for me.If you can see them let me know!!! So it started as a two kitten day!

I spent the morning e-mailing professors and working on arrangements for the fall term. I then finished up cleaning the immigrant Filipino data and sent it to the contractor and Ann. That was done right at lunchtime. Lunch wasn't exciting. 2 small vegetable tamales with green tomatillo salsa, guava yogurt, and water. I had brought Cahill Whiskey Cheese which was revolting so I just tossed it. The afternoon was spent tinkering with data and answering questions Ann had regarding the charts, tables and graphs on the DVFR data. She is finishing the report now. Tomorrow I will probably get it to read through and offer suggestions.

I couldn't go home till after 5 due to the cleaner and exterminator coming to the house. So I stayed at work late. At 5 I went to leave and stopped in to ask Lisa if she had plans. Wayne had music practice so Lisa and Papa George were free for the night! My ankle was pretty painful so we set out to enjoy a drive. As we were walking down the stairs I saw one of the kittens again. So a THREE kitten day! I never ever see them both, or see them multiple times in a day. So a very special day indeed. It makes me smile just thinking about it. It is the little unexpected things each day I enjoy so much.

First we went to Diamond Head crater. The drive up to the crater was closed so we will do that another day but I was able to get some lovely photos from about halfway up the side in the parking lot.

After this we drove to Black Point. There were TONS of surfers there. The waves were really beautiful. 

After that we drove way way out past Waikiki, past downtown, past the Dole plantation, all the way to Haliewa. Here are some photos from the drive.

This is the beach at Haliewa.

 Lisa and papa George at Haliewa Beach.

After this we were all hungry so we stopped at Dot's in Wahiawa. It was super ono (delicious)!!! This place has been here over 70 years. Papa George was born and lived his early years near here till his parents passed away. This is a down home country cooking sort of place.

These are the windows from outside. I love the top sections. I know they aren't super clear in this photo but I liked them so didn't want to forget.

 The special board. Suffice to say, it doesn't look like back home. Grilled pork chops, leatloaf with gravy, and a couple of sandwiches? SURE... However, meat loaf loco moco for breakfast? Kalbi with fried rice kim chee, chicken squash with longrice (this is chicken with squash and a clear slippery noodle called longrice here), fried akule (a local fish), and shoyu (soy sauce) chicken... very different! I should have gotten a photo of the board for the next day on the way out. It had things like Tripe and tendon soup (GAG, just no).

 The menu. The pineapple I get, but NO IDEA what the circle with triangles is representing.

 Soup of the day - egg drop soup. NOTHING like egg drop soup at home (which I dislike intensely). This was a mushroom and chicken broth with celery, carrots and egg with large slices of shitake mushrooms. It was actually REALLY tasty.

 Heh, ok, don't get nervous. This is two scoops of mash (mashed potatoes) covered with brown gravy and a bunch of mixed veggies.

 This is the sizzling hamburger steak, smothered in brown gravy and onions. This is served in a VERY hot iron skillet on a plate. It comes covered in wax paper to keep the bubbling gravy and hamburger grease from spitting on you and burning you. I have a video of this. You can still see the gravy sizzling and bubbling in this photo. The hamburger is SUPER tender and has a wonderful flavor. This is a big patty. I ate the whole patty, gravy and almost all the onions and only had a couple of bites of the mash and gravy and ignored the mixed veggies. After the soup, hamburger patty, 2 cups of hot tea and a small dish of tapioca I was so stuffed I couldn't even imagine eating more.
This one was mine. It was so fun to watch them take off the covering and seeing it sizzle.

It was so much fun to watch that I too a video when they brought out papa George's sizzling hamburger steak so you could watch and enjoy!

After we ate they drove me home. I feel bad they had to drive me all the way home but Papa George fell asleep and Lisa and I chatted so it went quickly. I always feel bad they have a long drive home afterwards but I appreciate getting to go out. Super super big Mahalo to Lisa and Papa George. With my ankle messed up I cannot go walking like I did before so getting to ride in a car and see everything is just delightful!!!

What a wonderful day. A great start to the week. I didn't get home till 10 and after getting in, talking to Romi a bit, getting ready for bed and doing this entry it is 11:30. Time to get to sleep.

Aloha po, (Good night)
~Melissa