This Could Be Trouble

Apparently, I'm behind the times. All over, self-serve wine bars are popping up. Did a corporate thang in Honolulu at the Honolulu Design Center, and its Amuse wine bar lets folks pick their grape, slip in a credit card to transact, and drink away. Sheena, I could *so* see a Wine Warped Tour of the country, hiring a Lance to escort us in a high falutin', fancified RV hither, thither and yon to quaff at leisure. You in?



I was agog at the way cool lighting next door in the Stage Restaurant. Me likey!

North Shore Mosey

The fastest way from Kahuku on the North Shore to Waikiki is through the center of Oahu. Screw that. I may not be kamaaina, but I didn't want to miss drinking in all that coastline. As the speed limit on Kamehameha Highway is 35 MPH, there wasn't too much peril in ogling the gorgeousness that is the north and windward Oahu coast line, stopping for last snaps along the way.

Come On, Get Higher

I haven't been able to get this tune outta my pointy head. I've been singing it as I drove all over Oahu, hummed it as I snorkled, whistled it in the parking garage.

It's taken me over. He's playing in Atlanta this month. May have to check that out.

Matt Nathanson, Come On, Get Higher

Shark's Cove

Had grand aspirations to get up early and drive east for the day to Hanauma Bay, but a craptastic headache thwarted me. If not for that, would have been f*cktacularly vexed by the closure of the Kamehemeha Highway for eight hours in both directions. So it's just as well that my slack ass didn't get outta bed 'til after noon.

King Kamehameha, you may know, united the Hawaiian islands and was quite the badass. Or perhaps you know him more popularly from the shout out Cartman gives him in "Kyle's Mom is a B*tch in D Minor". But I digress. As is my wont to do.

My cousin's husband is from these here parts - Mililani - and when asked for good snorkel spots listed Shark's Cove as a fave. A quick stop at Foodland for provisions and snorkel gear (resort rental options were stanky) across the street from the park, and I was set.


Kokopelli was gettin' his snorkel on too.




Sun was gettin' its set on, so I moseyed a bit further west to Haleiwa for eats and a table by the sunset at Haleiwa Joe's. Had the baked swordfish and a mai tai in a signature cup. A non-sucky day.

Update: Darby Conley must have known I went snorking!

From Darby Conley's Get Fuzzy

Sunset

From my lanai.

Soothed and Balmed

When was the last time you slept to the sound of the ocean? An unsuck listen and a favorite thing.

Mai Hana Ino

That's Hawaiian for "do not disturb". Just arrived at my respite on the North Shore of Oahu, playing hooky for a few days before a work thang in Honolulu on Wednesday.

Snaps and descriptions to follow.

Bring 'Em Yo' Own Dam Sef!

From NatalieDee.com

I baptized another Trader Joe virgin this week - people from off seem to really dig it. As I do. The mission was Two Buck Chuck, but alas, thwartation was at hand as they were all out of white from the holiday rush.

Did score some ummy yummies, including the return of the rosemary marcona almonds and raspberry and brie "fillo" rolls. The latter are way second to the Archer Farms Brie and Pear, seemingly discontinued. The effing ucktards! Target is stepping wrongly there.

I'm crossing my fingers to win the drawing for $50 of free Trader Giotto booty - qualified because I brought in my own grocery bags. See, kids! Recycling pays!

No wonder I like Canadians!

You cheeky monkeys! Keeping your eyes open 'n' stuff!

From Darby Conley's Get Fuzzy

Say it ain't so!

Sue Johanson is leaving the airwaves. Discovered her watching hotel boobage tube after work when in Canuckland on bidness. Never have caught her show on Oxygen, where she has a show on Sunday nights. This Sunday will be her last. Check it!

Nothing like hearing about good ol' fashioned - and new fangled - sex stuff from a happily raunchy and guilt-free 77 year old chick. In a CNN article, Sue lamented, "I'm going to miss playing with sex toys." Sue, we're going to miss you playing with sex toys! Say it ain't so!

Weezer

Finally! The perfect wedding toast!

From Randall Munroe's xkcd.com

Randall will never let you down!

It's not easy being green

From Tony Carrillo's F Minus

As we know, Sheena is enjoying a Roman holiday. I'm so envious, I could just shit. But I'm enjoying reading all about it. You will too.

My health is just fine, thanks

Randall Munroe's xkcd.com

I augment my bacon intake outside of my own kitchen with bacon cooked by other people (B.C.B.O.P.), and the higher consumption only has positive health impacts.

It's that time again

Happy May Day.

The year has been most challenging thus far. Too challenging. Looking forward to living in less interesting times, as soon as effing possible.

From Mark Tonra's James

Primary Colors

From Darby Conley's Get Fuzzy

CarolinaMom got her primary vote in early for next week's Democraptacular drama in the Tar Heel state. Today's NY Times article Demography is King aptly describes the party divide.

April 19th is Record Store Day

recordstoreday.com

Get your slackass out and support your local record store. Word!

Sheena's Style is Catching

It already seems too long ago that Sheena visited Hotlanta for Cheek's f*ck forty festivities. Supporting Sheena's thwarted Target fetish (they ain't got no Targets in Canuckland) yielded a Sheena-inspired decorative item now hanging chez Cheek:


Sheena traveled home with Sheena-themed containers scored by Cheek at Ikea; I wonder what's inside them now?


It's "Sheena" style that should be celebrated, never feared:

From Natalie Dee

Sunday's read: Can the Cellphone Help End Global Poverty?

Yes, it's a long a**-article from today's New York Times, but it's a fascinating read: Can the Cellphone Help End Global Poverty?

This is when I voiced a careless thought about whether there might be something negative about the lightning spread of technology, whether its convenience was somehow supplanting traditional values or practices. Chipchase raised his eyebrows and laid down his spoon. He sighed, making it clear that responding to me was going to require patience. “People can think, yeah, monks with cellphones, and tsk, tsk, and what is the world coming to?” he said. “But if you wanted to take phones away from anybody in this world who has them, they’d probably say: ‘You’re going to have to fight me for it. Are you going to take my sewer and water away too?’ And maybe you can’t put communication on the same level as running water, but some people would. And I think in some contexts, it’s quite viable as a fundamental right.” He paused a beat to let this sink in, then added, with just a touch of edge, “People once believed that people in other cultures might not benefit from having books either.”

. . .

Some of the drawings were basic pencil sketches; others were strikingly elaborate, with arrows pointing to different dream features, which were really just a way of pointing — I realized then — to the dreams themselves.

Jung and Tulusan said they’d found this everywhere, the phone representing what people are aspiring to. “It’s an easy way to see what’s important to them, what their challenges are,” Jung said. One Liberian refugee wanted to outfit a phone with a land-mine detector so that he could more safely return to his home village. In the Dharavi slum of Mumbai, people sketched phones that could forecast the weather since they had no access to TV or radio. Muslims wanted G.P.S. devices to orient their prayers toward Mecca. Someone else drew a phone shaped like a water bottle, explaining that it could store precious drinking water and also float on the monsoon waters. In Jacarèzinho, a bustling favela in Rio, one designer drew a phone with an air-quality monitor. Several women sketched phones that would monitor cheating boyfriends and husbands. Another designed a “peace button” that would halt gunfire in the neighborhood with a single touch.

- Sara Corbett, contributing writer to the New York Times

My new fave comic crashes into my old fave comic

Schweet!

From Randall Munroe's xkcd.com

You know you're a BSG fan when . . .

You look at the cheese tortellini you've made for dinner and realize they are shaped like a Cylon raider.