Homespun Honolulu

When we talked about the Local Pride of the Island bike show put on by Ollie Boy Productions, I promised that at some point I would talk about the tattoos. Because I’ve been meaning to do this for quite some time and because I have a reason to do this before tomorrow, I’m doing it now. Much like the bikers’ need for freedom and expressing their own identities, there’s much more to the tattoo than just being a bad a_ _!

People who see this sign may or may not be familiar with the company, Hart & Huntington. But if we say “Inked,” many will know instantly that we’re talking about one of the reality TV shows about tattoo artists. They opened a shop here in Waikiki. Personally, I prefer the other tattoo series, “Miami Ink.”

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Now, now, right now!

The University of Hawaii Warriors are in Idaho and Colt Brennan is on the field with the team and throwing passes as the team completes more touchdowns. The more I listen the more I realize this game is going to wrap up before I can get this posted! Yep, I was right. Final score: Hawaii 48, Idaho 20.

Hawaii Winter Baseball: The City and County of Honolulu’s Public Communications Division shared the news that Honolulu’s “Mayor Mufi Hannemann announced that the City and County of Honolulu will co-sponsor a Sunset at the Ballpark event, “Catch the Dream, Waipahu” this coming Saturday and Sunday at Hans L’Orange Field during the Opening Day weekend of the 2007 Hawaii Winter Baseball season.” Sounds like fun! Here’s the link for all of the information. It’s going on now and will continue tomorrow! Some of the players are names you will recognize, players who play for some of the big boys, like the New York Yankees, etc.

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I mentioned a few days ago that we would talk about the Portuguese festival that took place at McCoy Pavilion last weekend. This is an annual event that started in 1978 and was presented by the Hawaii Council on Portuguese Heritage (HCPH).

There was only one entrance open, but it took you right into the air conditioned exhibit hall they have there. That was nice! It was also nice to see all of the paniolo riding gear, old photos and other memorabilia! My first introduction to local Portuguese culture was just this way.

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The weather really is beautiful here! It’s a little wet at times but, for the most part, the sun is shining brightly. We do need to get our trade winds back just a little because it’s excessively warm but we’ll live.

It did rain yesterday morning, which would usually make someone remark begrudgingly that “it must be Monday,” which it was, but it was actually pleasant.  The drops were big and soft and they didn’t last very long — just long enough to get your hair all wet, which it did.  Aside from having to be at work, it would have been a perfect morning!

Yesterday’s afternoon presented us with a Waxing Gibbous moon. It’s almost full and lit from the right, just as the definition says it should be. This photo was taken late yesterday afternoon not long before sunset. Yes, it was before sunset.  So pretty!

Today the moon is only 99% full but we’ll be hard-pressed this evening, I think, to say that it’s not. Tomorrow, the 26th, it will be a full moon!

Anyway, I’ll try to pick up on more information and provide more of these things to keep those of you who are lunar-driven in sync with your activities. Fishing, planting, surfing, etc.

Sorry surfers, we’re pretty flat right now. When I get this moon thing down, maybe we can get a better idea of when things will be better.  Maybe.  I hope.

For fellow bloggers who are planning to submit entries for the upcoming Carnival of Aloha, the deadline for submissions is tomorrow at 9pm (HST). Here are the guidelines and the link to the submission form. The Carnival is scheduled to go live on Monday, October 1st and it’s looking good!

University of Hawaii Warriors Football

Did he or didn’t he?  He didn’t.  Wiser and more cautious minds prevailed and Colt Brennan opted not to play last night and to give his ankle a break.  The Warriors won in spite of it all with a final score of 66 to 10.

Aloha Festivals

O’ahu will say aloha to the Aloha Festivals for this year.  With the exception of the 13th Annual Falsetto Contest next Saturday, September 28th in Waikiki, the focus of the Aloha Festivals in October will be on Maui and Moloka’i.

Anyone interested in attending the Falsetto Contest will find it at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel in the Hawai’i Ballroom.  That’s at 7 pm this coming Saturday, doors open at 6 pm.  For more information, call 808-589-1771. 

Hawaii Superferry and Kaua’i

After all of the drama and emotion displayed during the Governor’s visit to Kaua’i to talk about the Superferry and its resumption of service to Maunawili harbor, the Superferry was the one who said, in a nutshell, “Uh, never mind.”  They have decided to suspend service to Kaua’i indefinitely, much to the relief of Kaua’i residents.  Perhaps once the environmental impact study is complete, cooler heads will prevail.

Portuguese Festival

The festival, presented by the Hawaii Council on Portuguese Heritage, continues today at McCoy Pavillion.  Hurry before the malasadas sell out, again!  We’ll talk more about this festival this coming week!

That’s the question of the week and everybody wants to know the answer!  How is that ankle?!?  The Honolulu Advertiser reports this morning that  June Jones, coach of the UH Warriors, says that Colt will start this evening. But, how long will he play and how safe will it be to do so? We can only speculate and keep our fingers crossed.

We all want to see him play and watch him add to his already impressive stats, but we also want to see him stay healthy. We’ll just have to wait until 6pm HST this evening to see what really happens. Keep it together, Colt, only you know what and how you’re feeling!

We can say that “fresh is fabulous” about almost anything. Salad Creations says it about the ingredients that go into their salads. Normally, I would be one of the last people to put salad on my list of things to talk about. It’s not too high on my list of things to eat either.

The amusing part of all this is that I am not a salad person. I like it alright, when my body decides that’s what it wants to be fed, but I won’t normally go out of my way to get it. Not long after Salad Creations opened on the corner of Bishop and Hotel Streets in downtown Honolulu, someone brought a copy of the menu back to the office. I saw the list of toppings, or “throw -ins” as they call them, and started salivating. The rest is history!

A little pricey? Yeah, but you’re very full — it’s lunch! The beauty of the “throw-ins” is that you can add as many of them as you want and the price stays the same! How’s that for a bargain? We’re talking good stuff here. Don’t try to strain to read the list on the picture. Here’s the list again:

The only time the price increases is if you add one of the specially-prepared meats from the list that include recipes of chicken, tuna, roast beef, ham or turkey. If you don’t want your salad in a bowl, you can have it in a wrap. Same ingredients, just wrapped up in a whole wheat tortilla.

My one complaint for this place would be the desire to have a plain tortilla that leaves the taste of the inside alone instead of interfering. Whole wheat has a flavor all its own and, unless you’re a true whole wheat fan, it’s not always a welcome one. Perhaps the general manager, Jerry Mullen, can be persuaded to step outside the box and have some of the other kind on hand for those of us who refuse to always eat healthy. Healthy is good but flavor is everything!

The wraps are great if you’re on the go and need it “to go.” The salads can be “to go” as well, but you can always have a seat and kick back if you want to just sit for a while and enjoy their air conditioning. The tables are clean and the climate is cool.

The staff are always friendly and helpful and they offer great advice. I’ve never had one of them steer me wrong yet! Even in the choice of dressing! The Honey Dijon is good (that’s low fat, lite Honey Dijon). Couldn’t prove it by me! It’s good! I’ve almost filled out a buy 8 get one free card and I still have a lot to try!

So, anyone can have fresh lettuce, right? Yeah, but do they have a choice of four different kinds of lettuce? That’s mix and match if you like. Do they have all those trimmings? A choice of 16 homemade dressings? How about 6 kinds of soup that are prepared fresh daily? Don’t worry about your sweet tooth, they have fresh baked cookies too. Give it up guys, it doesn’t get much better than this.

The best part? They’re open until 5:30! We all have those days when we just can’t quite get away until everybody else is closed (except McDonald’s). Salad Creations is open late enough to allow you to take a salad home for dinner! You have got to love a place that plans on feeding you, no matter how late you go to lunch! Mahalo to Jerry Mullen and the staff at Salad Creations for making sure we all get fed!  Downtown so needed a place like this!

Salad Creations
1102 Bishop Street
Honolulu, Hawai’i 96813
Phone: 808-585-9549

We’ll all know now! Look at what we’ve got over on the right margin! This has got to be my favorite widget! People are looking at this and saying, “So what?” This will show us how close we are to the full moon and we can watch it as it gets bigger (waxing) or as it gets smaller (waning). It’s cool to see how accurate this thing is when it looks just like that in the night sky! So far so good! It looks very accurate tonight!

It’s interesting to learn that although the sun is much larger and should have a greater pull on our atmosphere, the moon is closer and actually has a more direct impact on our tides and a lot of things we never even think about.

People are still saying, “So what?!?” Well, let’s see… shall we go swimming 8 or 10 days after the full moon? Best avoid the south (Diamond Head) and west (Makaha) shores of Oahu! The box jellyfish may be floating around all over the place. If you have not been stung by one, trust me, you don’t want to be. Even worse, you don’t want to find out that you’re allergic to them! I’m not making this up. Don’t believe me? See for yourself! I would imagine the same thing happens, not just in Hawaii, but where ever the jellies go swimming!

Okay, so we’ll go fishing instead. If you’re a fisherman, this may prove more important to you than you think!

Salt-water anglers argue that tides have a greater influence on fish feeding habits than the moon itself. It must be understood that the tides are governed by the phases and transit of the moon. Certain marine phenomena occur with precise regularity during the lunar month and solar/lunar cycle.”

We already discovered that with the jellyfish. Mahalo to King’s Outdoor World for that educational tidbit!

Don’t like the water very much? Rather be planting a garden? Guess what? Some people even do Gardening by the Moon!

Still not impressed? Ever ask anyone about when customers are obnoxious? Ever wonder why people are “all” driving so crazy on any given day for no particular reason? Ever ask your local telephone company when the crank calls happen most? I know that some staff at Hawaiian Telcom will cringe if you remind them that the next day is a full moon. That is when the most complaints and crank calls happen!

It makes sense if you think about it — we humans are mostly water according the US Geological Survey which says that, “Up to 60 percent of the human body is water, the brain is composed of 70 percent water, and the lungs are nearly 90 percent water.” Well, um, if the moon can control how water behaves, and since we’re mostly water… I would say that we are definitely susceptible to the pull of good old Mr. Moon. I know he pulls on my strings every now and then, or at least that’s who I like to blame it on!

Just for the record, the moon is currently waxing. In case I’ve got you interested now, we will be admiring a full moon on September 26th. I don’t need to tell you, you can just check out our new addition on the right!

The Aloha Festivals are under way and just as promised the Oahu Royal Court was present for the Opening Ceremonies at Iolani Palace yesterday. They were hosted by the Royal Hawaiian Band and traditional Hawaiian chant and hula.

What a busy day this Saturday was! The Aloha Week Parade went as scheduled this morning and the Thunderbirds of the US Air Force graced us with their presence and showmanship in the early afternoon.

The Air Force is celebrating its 60th “Heritage to Horizons” anniversary during their Air Force Week. Honolulu is actually one of the six cities that was selected to have Air Force Week festivities and they’re doing it in conjunction with the Aloha Festivals!

This evening was certainly not without activity! The Kapolei Mele went on this evening and the first performance of The Lion King was also this evening at Blaisdell Center.

It actually worked out nicely for us that the Oahu program of the Aloha Festivals started on the 14th. The University of Hawaii Warriors played “away” at the University of Las Vegas this evening so there was no football traffic to collide with the traffic for the Kapolei Mele. People attending the Kapolei Mele must have been walking around with their radios!

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Colt Brennan took yet another step toward that Heisman Trophy as he led the Warriors to a 49-14 win over UNLV!

Mahalo to TheHeismanWinners.com for this picture!

That’s a lot for one Saturday! The weekend’s not done yet!

The Royal Court will also be present at Central Union Church tomorrow (Sunday) morning. Central Union is on the corner of Punahou and Beretania Streets. Whew! Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Honolulu is always the lucky participant in two ho’olaule’a every year. The reason that I said that the Aloha Festivals would be “spread” across Oahu is because the first of the two ho’olaule’a (celebration) will not be in downtown Honolulu as it has been in the past. This year, the Aloha Festivals is changing this event from the Downtown Ho’olaule’a to the Kapolei Mele!

I think that having Kapolei be the lucky host for what used to be the downtown ho’olaule’a is a wonderful idea! They’re calling it the Kapolei Mele. I like that name too — Mele is the Hawaiian word for song or to sing. Yes, there will be lots of music!

I have to admit that I miss the Aloha Week banners that have always flown from the downtown street lights until this year, but that’s okay, the Leeward side of the island is well overdue to share in these Aloha Week festivities! Good choice, guys!

• On Friday, September 14th, Oahu’s Aloha Court will be introduced on the grounds of Iolani Palace.
• On Saturday, September 15th, the 61st annual Aloha Week parade will make its way from Ala Moana Park to Kapiolani Park starting at 9:00 am.
• In the evening on Saturday, the Kapolei Mele will begin at 5:00 pm at the Kapolei Regional Park.
• Sunday morning, September 16th, will find the Royal Court at Central Union Church at 9:00 am for Sunday morning services.
• Later that day, we will find the 2nd Annual Ukulele Contest at Aloha Tower! We are adding stuff to the Aloha Festivals all the time!
• On Friday, September 21st, the 55th annual Waikiki Ho’olaule’a will begin at 7:00 pm. This is Hawaii’s biggest “block party” but it covers a lot more than a “block” as it goes all along Kalakaua Avenue!

There is just so much going on in the coming week! For more information, you will find greater detail and contact information at the Aloha Festivals website! It promises to be a fun-filled week as the Aloha spreads across the island!