Congratulations Mitakeumi!!

Sumo wrestler Mitakeumi won his first career title yesterday. I cheered him on during his matches, and I cried when he cried during his interview. I'm so happy for him!

From the Asahi Shimbun:

NAGOYA--Sekiwake Mitakeumi clinched his first career title at the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament on July 21 as he leads the race with just one loss.

Mitakeumi, 25, defeated Tochiozan, rank-and-file maegashira No. 13, on Day 14 of the 15-day tourney at Dolphins Arena here by shoving him out of the ring.

Afterward, Mitakeumi was so overcome with emotion and wiping back tears that he could not respond to questions about his victory.

He is the first champion to have graduated from Toyo University, where he was a promising wrestler.

Homework

We have two homework assignments this week. This "feng shui" project is actually leftover from last week. I thought I was done, but  looks like I gotta fix the mat behind the fountain.



Here's the photo I found online.


Our second assignment is on "perspective" where we show how objects look bigger up close and smaller in the distance. I started on this last night and is still in progress. The long, distorted-looking fingers are a challenge, but to me it's the focus of this assignment. And if that doesn't work then hopefully the Jim Beam bottle that I purposely brought closer to the foreground will.



The photo I copied is by Travis Okimoto and is in the recent Modern Luxury Hawaii magazine. 

Watercolor Palettes

It's been 8 months already since my art journey started. So fast the time went fly by. It's still hard for me . . . and fun. And I still seem to be accumulating more and more supplies. 

I think I'm done buying watercolor paints at least. I bought mostly tubes because that was the most economical. I totally scored on the QoR and Winsor and Newton paints when Fisher had them on sale at clearance prices.


But when actually painting, I found that I tend to grab the paints that are in tins more frequently because it's faster and easier.


So I bought some empty pans online and searched around for tins so that I could make some ready-to-use palettes from the tube paints.




I attached magnets to the bottom of the pans so that they'd be stable in the tins.


The Hello Kitty Panda tin came from Leslie. The bottom left is the mini Altoids tin and the bottom right is an old cigarette case.


I put a Hello Kitty decal on the cigarette case. Isn't it cuuuuute!


Here's my finished palette collection. I'm a bit worried about mold forming in the moist paint so I set them out in the sun for a few days to dry them out. 

Tio's Tamales

Tio's Tamales is on Nuuanu across from Hosoi Mortuary. I picked up some lunch from there after the Photographer/Model group photo shoot a couple of weeks ago.

The food was really good even though it was kinda soggy by the time I got home.






Large Chorizo Nachos ($11ish?)


Green Chile Cheeseburger ($10.25)


Carne Asada Chimichanga ($12.50)


Cut-open chimichanga.

Whole Foods - Kakaako

It's HAYUGE! Here are a few photos that I took.

The Vegetable Man

I actually didn't make it to drawing class yesterday. I've had a lingering cough since the week before, and sometimes the coughing fits are so bad that I fart. Heaven forbid that that should happen in class, right?! I know . . . TMI. 

The assignment for yesterday was Old Hawaii, one of my favorite subjects. I drew Yasaiya-san, the Vegetable Man. Do you remember him? I feel so grateful to have such memories.


The picture is from this book. I have several such books. I'm glad I didn't get rid of them.

My Awesome Sistahs

The other weekend me and da sistahs were on our way to Marukai when this symbol lit up on my dashboard. 

Normally I woulda totally panicked, but since it had happened once before, I knew that it just represented low tire pressure, and I only small-kine panicked. 

I figured that after shopping at Marukai, I'd take the sistahs back home and I'd go home so that Wendell could take care of putting air into the tires. 



Only thing . . . the sistahs didn't wanna go home. They wanted to check out the new Whole Foods in Kakaako. 

Me: Hellooooo!! I have a low-tire-pressure indicator thing on my dashboard, you know!
Sweetie: We can go to Lex Brodie. They have a station to pump air there.
Me: And how you gonna know how much pressure to put?
Sweetie: It's on your car door.
Me: What??
Geri: Come on, let's do it. It's easy.
Me: Waaaaaahhhh. Ooooookaaaaay then.

So they directed me to Lex Brodie, where Sweetie checked my door. Sure enough it said: Front tires: 32. Back tires: 33.


Then we go to a doomahichi thing that's attached to a pole.


There were no words on it. Only pikchas. Vague pikchas.


I dunno how, but Sweetie figured it out. 


And Geri did the filling. 


And then off we went to Whole Foods!

Kahai Street Kitchen

Wendell is so-da-bomb husband. He drove into town the other day to pick up dinner for us from Kahai Street Kitchen. As usual, Kahai got thumbs up from all three of us.

Sautéed Opakapaka  $13.95 
Opakapaka with lemon butter caper sauce and fire roasted tomato relish

Furikake Crusted Calamari Salad  $10.95 
Furikake Crusted Calamari Steak, deep fried golden brown, served with our house salad, wasabi aioli and Kabayaki drizzle garnished with ocean salad

Moiliili Mix $10.95
Pork Chop Katsu with stuffing and gravy, Garlic Chicken 

No Way, Jose

Every Friday I always try to check Craigslist to see if there are any good Garage or Rummage Sales happening on the weekend. Yesterday I saw one in Hawaii Kai that had an extensive list. 

At first I thought, hmmmm . . . I should tell Landon . . . fishing poles, fishing lures, fishing lead were on the list. Then I saw Dewalt saw, skill saw, Craftsman tools, power tools, and I thought . . . ho, I should tell Wendell.

Then I saw something further down the list that made me stop cold. 

No way, Jose, was I gonna tell either of them ANYTHING. Not in a million years. Not if they had the best bargains ever in the history of all garage sales was I ever gonna point them to anywhere near that place.

Do you see it?


Dishes
Appliances
Knife set
Pots and pan
25 cup rice cooker
Coolers
Punching bag
Fishing poles
Car bike racks 
Commercial pots and pans
Fishing lures
Vynl flooring materials
Coleman propane Lanterns
Undo board
Fishing lead
Chopping block
Stainless steel boat BBQ grill
Home security camera system
Office supply's 
Portable propane stoves
Dewalt metal chop saw with extra blades
Skill saw
Craftsman tools
Power tools
Battery operated tools
Restaurant equipment - deep fryer
Single burner stove
King size bed 
Full size bed
Massage chair
Ladders - 4ft , 6ft, 8ft , 10ft
Brand new chest freezer
60 Gallon upright compressor
Engine hoist
Engine stand 
Tire machine
Tire balancer
Jet ski trailer
Propane BBQ grills
Commercial Ice maker
Flat screen tv's
Tv stand
File cabinet
Men's clothing
Gun safe
Bottle water
Boxes of Calamari 
Poker chips


Hint

Pau!

Here's what I'd been working on for the past few days. 

My friend asked me to make just the two pouches in the lower left corner, but I didn't want the extra fabric to go to waste so I also made the two bags for her. 


This is all that's left of the fabric!