This past Wednesday I had a Touristy Field Trip day with Ala and Chaz! We were all off from work so we visited the USS Arizona Memorial, USS Bowfin, and the Pacific Aviation Museum. It was hot and crowded, but worth it. I haven't visited the USS Arizona since... well the movie "Pearl Harbor" came out. Back then I was BIG Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett fan, so of COURSE I had to visit. The USS Arizona was free but we dished out $17 to go to the Bowfin and Pacific Aviation Museum.

The Bowfin was cool, you could go in the submarine and look through the binocculars, we even took a picture outside, and the people insert the photo into an old looking WWII newspaper (I still can't believe Chaz and Ala paid for a copy of that, it was just plain paper, not even glossy or anything at least at Disneyland it's glossy and you get a cute frame). The Pacific Aviation Museum was so-so, they only had 5 planes, and the flight simulator didn't look that great. Definitely not worth the money, but I hear they are looking to expand the museum, so I hope they add more planes. I saw in the gift shop that they were selling History Channel's WWII in HD on dvd which I LOVED, if I didn't forget my credit card I would've SO bought it. This most exciting part was seeing the jet up close outside of the museum. AND... it was sitting next to a building they used in the "Pearl Harbor" movie!

Oh oh I can't forget that when you take the shuttle to get to the museum, you pass by the airfield that Amelia Earhart tried but failed to take off from. That was pretty cool.

Later that day we planned to hike Diamond Head but they were closed. We settled on dinner at Onos Hawaiian Food and watching "Pearl Harbor" at Ala's. It was a U.S. History kind of day.

When I get a real job, this is what I will miss the most. Random days off in the middle of the week well spent with great company. While we were on our field trip, we thought of even more cool field trips we wanted to go on. I hope we can do it all before I get a new job!

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I am currently trying to pack for my Colorado/Vancouver trip. This whole cold weather thing is really throwing me off because I hear it's not that bad, but I get cold verrry easily. So it's like do I take the Uggs or pack shorts. argh. Not too mention... my Tory Burch flats that I wanted to take (my $110 on sale Tory Burch flats) one of the metal decoration thingys on my heel is coming off! WTH! Luckily Nordstrom will repair it, unluckily it takes a week, so I'll need to find different flats to pack.

Packing my suitcase playlist:

-I Want it That Way-BSB

-Tonight-NKOTB

-It's All Coming Back to Me Now-Celine Dion

-The entire 50 First Dates Soundtrack

-That Faith Hill song from Pearl Harbor

-Random Disney songs.

North Shore advenchas with my besties last Sunday. After church we hit up Cholo's for lunch and this really cool ice cream place for dessert! I had to beg both of them to make the journey up country, Wayne to drive us there (because my poor car is dying) and Anna to actually come (because she rarely ventures past Waikele). The weather was horrible, raining off and on, so that pretty much ruined any plans of getting our food to go and having a picnic at the beach. I'm not much of a mexican food eater and ever since Compadre's closed down, I haven't found any good ones in town yet (there are a couple of taco places I still need to check out), so to satisfy my cravings I went to Cholo's. Of course while I was there I had to get a li hing mui margerita, but sadly I had to drink by myself because Anna didn't want to drink. Poo.

This past couple of weeks I've been trying to make small and big changes in my lifestyle. I've been really trying to save money by not going out and drinking as much, rather spending time with friends watching movies at home, hanging out at Ala's, etc. Also I'm really trying to get in shape... slowly. I've been working out/running at least three times a week and doing the Hip Hop Abs DVDs Courtney let me borrow. The next step is finding a new job, I applied for four today, wish me luck!

Last week before I jumped on a plane to Maui, Robbie hosted a Billabong boat trip! We took this beautiful yacht out just outside of Waikiki for a sunset cruise. Happy times with my bong crew and I didn't get sick! Sadly I didn't swim, it was too cold, but there was plenty of good times on the boat beers and shots, jam seshes on Peter's uke, poke and ruffles (our favorite combo). Cory needs to plan more boat trips with Robbie, I say every other month!

I had to leave early to catch my plane so I missed the BBQ and the after party at Ala's. There is something about boats that make me extremely exhausted. It's probably the dramamine. When I got to Maui, I went straight to bed. I was so pooped.

This is my Disney DVD collection, it's a goal of mine to get EVERY Disney and Disney/Pixar film on DVD. I am a sucker for anything Disney (especially Lilo and Stitch and High School Musical!). My dad has the other half of the collection, I'm pretty sure we are only missing a few more. The only problem is that Disney keeps re-issuing movies on DVDs, like right now Alice in Wonderland was just released on DVD AGAIN, but this time it's the Diamond Edition. WTF Disney! How am I supposed to know which one to buy? GEEEEEZ.

Also we've started collecting Studio Ghibli films, I think we are just missing Grave of the Fireflies. It's a hard one to find but, one of the best the studio has put out. I went home on Friday night and watched Ponyo with my mom and dad. Ponyo is quirky, animation is great as always, not Miyazaki's most outstanding work tho. My favorites are My Neighbor Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle, and Spirited Away.

I'm sick, and I really shouldn't be eating a hot dog, but when my mom offered me a dog from Hank's Haute Dogs I couldn't resist. After stopping by Fisher Hawaii to get some supplies for my sister's graduation announcements, we went to Hank's for a Chicago Dog combo. It came with fries and a drink, for around $8, a great deal! I got the garlic aioli dipping sauce for my fries and my mom got the Wasabi Tobiko, I wonder how that tasted. The Chicago Dog comes topped with a pickle, tomato, peppers, spicy mustard, and some other awesome goodness.

If you love hot dogs as much as I do , I really suggest you stop by Hank's. They have classic dogs, as well as some specialty dogs such as lobster, rabbit, alligator. I haven't been that daring to try those dogs, but the bf has tried a couple and seemed to have liked them. They also make killer mac'n'cheese with truffle oil. Today they were offering Chicago deep dish pizza but there was a 15 min wait. Hank's was also featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. They're only opened during the day 10-4 Mon-Fri, 10-5 Sat-Sun, so go on your lunch break, it's so worth it.

I have the meanest headache right now, but looking at those pictures again is making me hungry for another Haute Dog.

P.S. I love my new nail polish! It's called Poppy, from American Apparel. Made in America! Yay. My coworker Peter, told me that a lot of clothing made outside of the U.S. uses a LOT of weird dyes, that probably aren't approved by the U.S. It started to make me feel itchy and want to buy only made in the U.S.A. products. But I think that's pretty impossible.

This week dinner... grilled chicken sandwiches with Giada De Laurentiis Garlic Parmesan Vinaigrette. I actually had the t.v. on when I was cleaning my room and saw Sandra Lee make grilled chicken sandwiches on her show Sandra's Money Saving Meals. Now I dislike Sandra Lee (why? because one she takes ridiculous short cuts, like buying minced garlic in a jar, buy a clove and mince it yourself, lazy ass), but I do like saving money where I can. So I saw that she just cut one chicken breast in half and was able to use that for two sandwiches, and it cooked so fast since it was thinly pounded out. Fast and homemade, can't beat that. Sandra Lee made this herby mayonnaise, not a fan of the mayo I decided to go with Giada De Laurentiis Garlic Parmesan Vinaigrette from her new line a Target. I love Giada! It turned out to be a real great Italian chicken sandwich!

Next week I'm going to try making chicken katsu! I think I'm going to try and learn how to make more Japanese foods, since it's me and Mike's favorite. I've been watching a lot of "Cooking with Dog" on youtube.

OH! Last week Friday I ate at Highway Inn with my parents. Look at that spread rice, beef stew, pipikaula, laulau, kalua pig quesadillas... oh man I'm getting hungry just looking at it again. My family loves Highway Inn, we have been going there for YEARS, when I was younger I didn't like going there. But now that I've lived in town for so long, and there isn't really super great Hawaiian food in town other than Yamas (in my opinion of course), NOW I crave it. CRAVE some good Hawaiian food from Highway Inn. They recently renovated, and were featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on the Food Network.

It was a full moon a couple days ago, caught it with my camera! It has been super windy lately, and I hate it. It's sunny, but windy, so it's hot/cold. Can't go to the beach because you will be ambushed by sand, and it will be too cold when you get out of the water. Not too mention looking like an idiot trying to walk through wind. Weather please get better soon.

Those are the avocados Mike picked at the farmer's market last Saturday. I'm impatiently waiting for them to get ripe. I've recently discovered eating Turkey, Chedder, and Cracker Lunchables with avocado. It's like a turkey avocado sandwich but on a cracker. Everyday I hand Priya the small avocado and ask... "Is it ready yet?" Nope, not ready yet. :( Avocados please hurry up and get ripe.

Random thoughts:

• MLB season starts tomorrow! EXCITED. Not excited about the fact that Victoria's Secret is ONLY selling VS Pink/Yankees gear. Hello VS we are NOT all Yankees fans here. Still cheering for my Mariners, can't give up on them. I also love Boston and the Phillies (mostly for Shane, go St. Anthony's! And mostly because Mike graduated from St. Anthony's too.). Today on SportsCenter I discovered Clayton Kershaw of the LA Dodgers, super hot, super awesome lefty, and super too young for me (he's the same age as my little sister). Will be keeping my eye on them Dodgers too.
• One month and a week til Vancouver vacay. We're going biking in Stanley Park, yay for family biking trips.
• Hachiko: A Dog's Tale was released on DVD last month (how the heck did I miss this), I saw the trailer for this last March but it said it was only going to be released in Japan in August 2009. YAY for releasing it to the U.S. It wasn't the greatest movie, but if you love dogs (especially cute Akitas) you'll like it. I liked it better than Marley and Me, the movie not the book. It's based on a true story, here's the preview: