Hawaii Children's Cancer Foundation's Jungle Adventure - 9/7/2008

The Hawaii Children's Cancer Foundation (HCCF) is the only organization in the State of Hawaii dedicated exclusively to providing services to children with cancer and their families. HCCF’s Jungle Adventure was held at the Honolulu Zoo this past Sunday. I had a really great time and want to thank Erick, Susie and Geof for coming to help me take pictures, and I especially want to extend a GREAT BIG MAHALO to Mona and Alexis for their nonstop, no-break awesome facepainting job.

Duck Story

A friend e-mailed this story to me and I thought it was an awesome example of human kindness. If you look closely there are actually ten ducklings!:

Something really cute happened in downtown San Antonio this week. Michael R. is now an accounting clerk at Frost Bank and works downtown in a second story office building. Several weeks ago, he watched a mother duck choose the concrete awning outside his window as the unlikely place to build a nest above the sidewalk. The mallard laid nine eggs in a nest in the corner of the planter that is perched over 10 feet in the air. She dutifully kept the eggs warm for weeks, and Monday afternoon all of her nine ducklings hatched.

Michael worried all night how the momma duck was going to get those babies safely off their perch in a busy, downtown, urban environment to take to water, which typically happens in the first 48 hours of a duck hatching. Tuesday morning, Michael watched the mother duck encourage her babies to the edge of the perch with the intent to show them how to jump off!
The mother flew down below and started quacking to her babies above. In his disbelief Michael watched as the first fuzzy newborn toddled to the edge and astonishingly leapt into thin air, crashing onto the cement below. Michael couldn't stand to watch this risky effort. He dashed out of his office and ran down the stairs the sidewalk where the first obedient duckling was stuporing near its mother from the near fatal fall.
As the second one took the plunge, Michael jumped forward and caught it with his bare hands before it hit the concrete. Safe and sound, he set it by the momma and the other stunned sibling, still recovering from its painful leap.
One by one the babies continued to jump. Each time Michael hid under the awning just to reach out in the nick of time as the duckling made its free fall. The downtown sidewalk came to a standstill. Time after time, Michael was able to catch the remaining 7 and set them by their approving mother.

At this point Michael realized the duck family had only made part of its dangerous journey. They had 2 full blocks to walk across traffic, crosswalks, curbs, and pedestrians to get to the closest open water, the San Antonio River . The onlooking office secretaries and several San Antonio police officers joined in. They brought an empty copy paper box to collect the babies. They carefully corralled them, with the mother's approval, and loaded them in the container. Michael held the box low enough for the mom to see her brood. He then slowly navigated through the downtown streets toward the San Antonio River . The mother waddled behind and kept her babies in sight.

As they reached the river, the mother took over and passed him, jumping into the river and quacking loudly. At the water's edge, he tipped th e box and helped shepherd the babies toward the water and to their mother after their adventurous ride.

All nine darling ducklings safely made it into the water and paddled up snugly to momma. Michael said the mom swam in circles, looking back toward the beaming bank bookkeeper, and proudly quacking.

Dead Sea Beauty Product

I usually give a wide berth when passing by kiosks in the malls, but Liran from Israel (in center of photo) caught me by surprise when he said, "Can I ask you a question?" I should have bolted then, but he continued by asking, "Have you ever heard of the Dead Sea?" That immediately caught my attention, because co-worker Julie long ago gave me the best hand lotion I have ever used, and it was a Dead Sea product. Anyway, Liran proved to be the most charming man I have ever met (he had the sexiest accent and he kept calling me "darling" while he stroked my inner arm while applying different samples of the product).

Needless to say I bought two items, a facial peel and a moisturizer.
As it turns out, I just looooove the peel. It smells really nice and is not abrasive at all. You apply to a clean, dry face and massage it in. You can actually feel your dry skin start to exfoliate (either that or the lotion is coagulating). You then rinse it off.

After that I apply a little bit of the moisturizer. Just this little dab is rich enough to moisturize your whole face.

Then your face will feel like you're two years old again. You can read more about the product here.

Tofu Soup

My husband, Wendell, is a great cook and this is one of my favorite dishes that he makes. He says it's easy to make.
2 c. stock or water

1. 1/4 lb. ground pork
   1/4 lb. won bok
   1/4 lb. tofu
   1 oz. (28g) dried bean threads, softened in cold water
   10 canned straw mushrooms
2. 1 T. fish sauce
   1/4 T. thin soy sauce
3. 1/2 T. chopped green onion
   pepper as desired
4. 1/2 t. each: sugar, garlic oil
   cilantro as desired
   
   Bring stock to boil. Add 1 and 2, cook until meat changes color. Add 3 and 4. Serve.

Big News - I Cleaned House Today - 9/1/2008

Here's my spotless, furless floor with long-missing dog toy that emerged in the clean-up.

I'm looking forward to the next Big News: Wendell Sorts Through His Mail.

Mana Bu's in the Star Bulletin - 8/31/2008

A couple of months ago I wrote about my favorite musubi place, Mana Bu's. Nadine Kam just did a write-up on Mana Bu's in her Weekly Eater column in the Star Bulletin and gave them 4 stars each for food, service and value!! They're open on Sundays now and have new store hours: 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesdays to Sundays (closed on Mondays).

Photo by Craig Kojima of the Star Bulletin