Mamaya Bento

Awhile back we got treated to a bento lunch at work.  I can't even remember why.  We had a choice of salmon or chicken.  I picked the salmon.  It was gooooooood.  

Here's a link to the menu:  Mamaya Menu.



I was dieting at the time so I only ate one bite of the rice. I really, really liked it.  I took the rest of the rice home and froze it so that I could eat it later when the diet contest was over.  Only thing . . . when I went to look for it later, I couldn't find it.  I think Wendell dumped it.  Bah!


Here's the chicken.  They said it was bland.  Good thing I chose the salmon.  Yeehaw!

Sherri and Family

Sherri actually booked her photo shoot way back in November, but we had the worst timing ever with the rains and with my getting sick.  We FINALLY met up yesterday, and I'm so so happy at how everything turned out.  I think you'll agree that Sherri and Jeff have  the cutest little family ever.

Mosaic Flexible Light Kit

Wendell installed some lights above our kitchen countertop yesterday.  We used to have only a fluorescent bulb above the sink and so it was pretty dim around the countertop where Wendell does the food prepping.



He replaced the fluorescent tube with an LED fixture and then put up these flexible bands of light all along the underside of the cabinets.


He said he got the light kit from Costco and it was around $30.


These are the lights!!!!  It's not really bright bright, but it illuminates sufficiently, especially when there was no light there at all before.


It wasn't a continuous 12-foot band but several lengths that you connect together here.


It came with a remote which you can use to select different colors if you like. 


Wendell knew that the band wouldn't stick properly to the bumpy surface on the underside of the cabinet so he drilled and attached a smooth track for it to stick on to.  He also had to saw through some of the wood braces so that the bands could lay flat.  It took him awhile to get everything just right, but he did a great job.

Kona's Smile

Kona has this smile.  Whenever he's happy he crinkles up his nose and does a happy dance.  Soooo cute!  I could never catch a picture of it no matter how hard I tried.  Wendell's coworker/buddy Donovan managed to get this shot.  Funny yah!

Christmas Pot Luck

Here's my second family . . . the one I work with.   We had a pot luck yesterday. I pretty much ate nonstop all day long.



Lorna made banana lumpia . . . nice and crispy.


Wouldja believe this is a ham?  CQ dressed it up with bacon, apricot and fig.


Susan got some look fun and made it all fancy.


Mich made this Kauai Goteborg sausage musubi.


Julie made this Korean pancake.


Noreen's crab rice dish.


Ronnie brought chicken and duck.


Runa made this linguine taegu salad.


Here's Davin, one of my favorite coworkers.  I finally got a picture of him for my blog.


And here's Karen.   But check out the mastah photo bomber, CQ.


See.


And now Mich trying to get into the action too.

Merry Christmas

Hope your Christmas was as good as Kona's!

And the Doctor Said

I used to think that having diarrhea was your body's way of getting rid of something that is bad in your system and that you should just let it run its course.  I've changed my mind.

I saw my doctor yesterday.  I told him that I was terrified of ever having to go through what happened again.  I asked him if I shoulda taken some Imodium.  He was surprised that I hadn't.  He said that YES, I shoulda taken some Imodium and that if I had, I wouldn't have ended up almost dead and in the ER.  *gulp*  He's kinda samurai and no-nonsense like dat. 

He said that if it happens again, to take two pills (4 mg total) at the onset. Then one pill (2 mg) after each unformed stool.  !!!!!  Daily dose should not exceed 8 capsules (16 mg). He also said to drink lots of salty liquid like saimin broth. I think he mentioned Gatorade too, but I ran out of storage room in my brain cells.

To be honest, I feel kinda traumatized right now.  Hopefully, in time I'll feel like my old self again.

Nippon Nin and Honolulu Aunty

Nippon Nin totally cracks me up.  She recently made some curry that required choke onions. Look at her picture.  Soooo funny.  And her curry looks so ono.  A link to her blog is on my Blog List on the right side bar.

And then make sure you also check out Honolulu Aunty's contraption she got from Amazon that turns your regular toilet into a bidet for only $28.  And she installed it herself.  Amaaaaazing!

Dehydration

I thought it was from the greasy tacos from Jack in the Box that I had eaten, but when my diarrhea got to be extreme I realized that it must've been more like a stomach flu.  I tried to drink a lot of liquids all day, but it was impossible to keep up with the amount of fluid I was losing . . . it was massive.  I know . . . TMI.

It's hard to describe the feeling that I had just before I passed out.  I had just gone to the toilet for the umpteenth time and was returning to my bed.  Just as I reached the edge of the bed, I felt my brain start to feel like it was unplugging . . . not lightheadedness like when you stand up too quickly . . . it was different . . . it was more like my brain was losing its connection.  I knew it was from my being dehydrated so I feebly reached for my cup of water.  At the same time, I called for Wendell.  Thank God he was home.  

The next thing I remember is sitting on the ground with my legs in a pool of water and with Wendell at my side.  I could hear him calling my name, but I couldn't respond.  I heard him calling 911.  After they told him to lay me down on my side, I started feeling better, and I could talk again.  

When the ambulance guys came they took my blood pressure . . . it was 63/30.  They said that I broke some kind of record.  

Here is the inside of the ambulance which took me to Queen's ER.



I forget this guy's name.  He was really nice . . . made small talk all the way.  I asked him if the siren was on 'cause I couldn't hear it and I always wondered how loud it sounded from inside of the ambulance.  He said that it wasn't on. I was kinda glad. I was also glad that I wasn't in any pain.  The ride was pretty bumpy.  The guy said that their ambulance is actually one of the more smoother riding ones.  !!!!


This is what I needed . . . some intravenous fluids.  By the end of the night, I was given two bags of these. 


It's been a couple of days and I finally feel almost normal. I hope I never have to go through that again.  It was scary.

matt, liz and madeline

I'm providing links . . . because you need to read Matt's blog which I've been following for about 4 years.  Liz, Matt's wife, died on the day after she gave birth to Maddy . . . from a pulmonary embolism.  Here's:  What Happened

Maddy is 5 years old now.  She touches my heart:  This

I've added Matt's blog to My Blog List on the right side of my blog in case you wanna follow it along with me.

SHE WON!!!!!

Tessanne Chin won!  I finally figured out how to properly embed videos so that smartphones and iPads can view. Yay!  

"I Have Nothing"


And because I screwed up before, and because I'm so happy, and because she has an awesome haircut, and because she's so GREAT:

"Unconditionally"


"Try"

Noreen and Family

K.  Do you remember last Sunday?  Thunder and lightning?  Well, I almost can't believe it myself, but that's the day we took these pictures.  The rain stopped just for us.  For real.

Noreen is a very special coworker.  She came to work with us when she was fresh outta high school . . . around 27 years ago.  For real.

Crunch Time

Aiyaaaaaaa!!!!

If Only for a Second

Manju and Mochi

As soon as I found out that there was a Big Island Candies store at Ala Moana Shopping Center I went small-kine berserk (thanks for the scoop, Shar).  I couldn't believe that I could just go to the mall right up the street from my working place and buy me some of my favorite pineapple manju.  I talked about it previously here.  

I dropped by yesterday morning before going to work. I bought all the manju that they had on display.  For gifts.  But I do hope that I'll have some left for me.  Maybe I should go back and buy some more.  It's good to have extra . . . right?  For gifts.



Just so happened I ran into Sweetie.  She said, "Did you see the new mochi store?"  Once again, I went small-kine berserk.


In the store, I felt like I was back in Japan.




The girl there said that they have their products flown in from Japan daily.




I bought this daifuku mochi.  It was $3.


The girl put my one mochi into this bag.  So Japanese, yah!


39 grams of carbs!! More than a cup of vanilla ice cream!  Whoa! But, boy was it good.