My sister and brother (brother-in-law but I don't believe in the word "in-laws")came for one last weekend of debauchery before Nic and I move home. They came for a visit back in January but were strapped to two kids both under the age of 3 wich kept us from letting it all go.
We hit the ground running the minute we picked them up from the airport and headed to one of our sacred beaches on the North Shore. Nic made us a pitcher of mojitos while Trevor quickly began applying his 100 proof sunblock. (This is the same guy that got a sunburn on his arm last time he was here while driving in the car with the windows rolled up).
It was so good to hang out with them and show them our underground scene here. Definitely made some memories that will last us a life time. I will the pictures fill in the rest of the weekend.
Oh, and I am pretty sure we should take THIS on tour..
It has been exactly two months since my last posting. Does anyone even read this anymore? In two months A LOT has happened. But before I begin let me acknowledge that today is also Nic and I's 1 year anniversary! This is definitely a banner year for us with all of life's changes, obstacles and journeys. Through everything I still have the biggest crush on my husband. God I love him.
Okay,I am no longer going to skirt around this topic. As most of you know we are moving back to Portland. There. I said it. Much like the move to Hawaii it was a bitter sweet decision. Rather than listing all of the reasons of why we have decided to move back I am going to save my words on what I am looking forward to in our next chapter...blond bobby pins. I will no longer have to have them imported. Also, I can't wait to built my roots as team Yannariello (or as Shannon would say Yannapiealyonarelmouoeno). I am ready.
When we moved to Hawaii we fit all of our possessions into a 20' container and shipped it here. Now, our life's possessions fit into a 4'x4'x6' box. I feel like we barely have an identity anymore. I will say that half of that box is filled with my burlesque costumes and shoes. There are just some things a girl can't let go of. One of the things I am excited about is to start our collection of life's treasures but to do it together. Whether it be memories, furniture or recipes to success I am looking forward to building this collection with him.
Although living on an island in the middle of the Pacific is super exotic, there are many things, simple things, that this place is lacking or just doesn't have because it is an island and I truly miss.Here are a few (not in order of importance):
- Neighborhoods - Mexican food - Cafes , even just coffee stands - Outdoor seating at restaurants (why Hawaii doesn't have outdoor seating is their restaurants is beyond me. Hello???) - Billboards (there is literally no advertising here) - White people - Not even a good, but just a decent pizza parlor - Pubs or good dive bars (we have none) - Trains - Bridges - Recycling (this one is really annoying) - Self check-out stands - Trader Joe's (it's funny to me that the clerks at Trader Joe's are forced to wear Aloha shirts but there isn't even a Trader Joe's in Hawaii. I don't get it).
I guess I can't fault this place too much because we really are in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes I like to look on the map and remind myself how far away from home I really am.
There are no shortage of places to hike here in Hawaii. When Nic and I first arrived here we spotted this trail on a crater that literally went strait up. We zoomed in and noticed that there were actually people hiking it. The first thing that came out of Nic's mouth was "OH, HELL NO!". I secretly thought to myself that I want to challenge this some day.
Well, I did. Nic has been in Portland taking care of a little business and I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to take on Koko Head. I heard a lot of people do it, and a lot of them do it multiple times per week so I thought what's the big deal. It can't be that hard. Plus, I have been running a lot of stairs so I should be totally conditioned for this. Umm, no. It was brutal. I even witnessed a grown man crying on the trail.
The trail is literally made up of an old railroad track that goes straight up the crater that was used back in the day for something important. Now, it acts as your only lifeline between you and death. There literally is one section of the trail that is just a bridge made out of this track and you have to tip toe your way across in effort not to fall off. You're tired, dizzy and weak and now you have to tightrope walk this bridge? Sounds safe. Not to mention that there is a shooting range below so the entire time you hear gun fire going off. I remember thinking at one point "Please, shoot me. Please shoot me."
Forgive us visitors for we have sinned. On Thursday Nic and I decided to hit the water park that we have been tempted to go to since we moved here. I feared it would be nothing but a bunch of dirty diapers and screaming kids but boy was I wrong. It was AWESOME! So awesome that we got a season pass to it. We wish we would have discovered this sooner so we could have brought our guests here.
Also, we played it smart and tail gated it before we went with some Crown & Coke.
Sorry kid, maybe next year you can ride on the big kid rides and tail gate with us.
So last month my mom and her best friend, Barbie, called me up rather intoxicated threatening that the two of them were going to come to Hawaii to visit. I went along with it over phone thinking that by time their Crown Royal had worn off they would get cold feet. Well guess what...the Crown Royal never wore off and the two of them came to visit us for a week! The four of us had a blast and Nic looked like a pimp with his two cougars and puma.
We tried to keep the agenda simple as they wanted to just learn about our life here. Well...as you know Nic and I have major A.D.D. so keeping anything SIMPLE is foreign to us. Our week ended up being full of fun events, play and laughter. I have learned too that it is always nice to have your mom(s) visit. Somehow the dishes and laundry magically get done and you know you will never go without a meal.
Yet again another leap of absence from blogging which usually means more time spent at the office than I like. I have been taking on some design projects outside of my daily grind in the showroom which have been super fun, but I find myself now working at least 6-7 days a week. My tan is suffering severely and my workouts have resulted into a 10 min. jump roping session. In the midst of all of it Mark and Deb (Nic's sister and newly awesome husband) were here visiting us for the past couple weeks. In the few short hours I had to spend with them we had a blast! One of the beauties about people visiting you is that you really get time do know one another, even if it is just over making scrambled eggs together in the morning before work.
Our favorite day together was spend in Kailua which is our favorite town in Oahu. We started off boogie boarding at the beach.
And then we realized we needed a Coor's light while boogie boarding. Just about the time we cracked the can, a large "sneaker wave" attacked us and we lost our beer.
I had to peel off for a 2 o'clock meeting but that didn't keep us from partying later on. We wrapped up the evening back in Kailua at our favorite dive bar "The Palace" where is was fist discovered on Tracy and Trevor's visit. Conveniently they were singing Karaoke that night and so Nic of course did a few numbers. The crowd at the bar loved his singing so much that they continued to buy us another round if Nic would stay and keep singing. I finally got up there and did a number and then after that they made me pay for my drink.
There are not many things that can replace my Sunday family dinners I used to have with my parents every week, but last night could have been it's only challenger. I was invited to an exclusive dinner at one of the suites at the new Trump International Hotel in Waikiki. (For those of you who I haven't shared this with I am working on a very cool project here in re-doing one of the suites for Seven Signatures who is the big Japanese developer for this project. More to follow on that.) Only eight guests were invited and I got to be one of them! But wait, the coolest part comes next. This exclusive dinner was prepared in the suite by the famous Chef Mavro. He is an award winning chef from France and Hawaii's most recognized "proprietor." The food was amazing to say the least. Here was our menu for the evening:
Trump Tower “7 Signatures”
Private Chef Dinner
April 11, 2010 at 6:00pm
(8 guests)
Champagne Cocktail
Grape Goat Cheese-Pistachio Balls
Flamiche
Abalone Escabeche
Menu
hamachi poke & caviar
yellowtail fish seasoned with hanapepe salt
topped with california estate malossol caviar, island avocado
country bread toasted with extra virgin olive oil, mustard leaves
kanzuri yuzu-chile sauce
wine suggestion: albarino
meli-melo of Spring vegetableS
green & white asparagus, ma’o farms organic vegetables of the day
sumida watercress, chick pea fritters, eggplant tahini, black garlic
wine suggestion: dry vouvray
keahole lobster & pirie mango salad
curried mango & roasted red bell peppers, taro chips
chocolate banana crème caramel, chinese almond decadence
almond ice cream
wine suggestion: port, tawny
before each dish was served, chef mavro would explain his inspiration behind it which often included his visits and studies for all over the world. after the dish was introduced, the wine master who hand selected the wines that paired perfectly with each dish introduced the wine we were being served and the reason behind his selection. the chef had about 4 people on staff; 3 in the kitchen with him and one front line host as he called him. this guy made sure that every napkin was in our lap, not a crumb was on the table, and no drinks were ever left empty. it was incredible!
The other guests that joined us for dinner were not small chickens either:
Kundo Koyama: Broadcasting scenario writer. (one of the original writers for Iron Chef)
Yumiko Inukai: Food journalist
MuneakiMaeda: Food photographer
Tae Yonezawa: Deputy chief editor for GEOTHE
Scott Ingwers: GM of Trump Tower
Akiko Tsuji: Concierge of Trump
Yoichiro Nakano (my client and CEO of Seven Signatures)
I knew this night called for a classy attire so I decided to go as Marilyn for the evening...
FUCK! It is expensive here. According to Forbes living in Honolulu costs 55% more than living in the average U.S. city. (probably should have read that before I moved me and my husband here). And let me tell you why:
A carton of eggs is $3.99 Celery is $3.44 per lb. Gas is $3.55 per gallon The "$5 Footlong" is really $6 And there is no such thing as The Dollar Tree because there isn't a damn thing here you can buy for $1.00.
Nic and I have always wanted to go sky diving so, we went! It's kind of like one of those things where if you over analyze it you are sure to talk yourself out of it. Especially when it comes to deciding whether or not to jump out of a plane at 14,000 feet.
A group of friends from work put together a jump on Friday morning. We were all virgin jumpers which made it a perfect opportunity for us to go. We hit Dillingham air field up at the North Shore about 8 am that morning. By 8:30 we were climbing an altitude of 14,000 feet with some random dude strapped to the back of us that is supposed to prevent us from not becoming scrabbled eggs once we hit bottom. I guess there is no much to debrief you on. You either live, or you don't.
After we reached 14,000 feet we inched our way to the edge of the plane. Then...JUMP! It was about 72 seconds of free fall with no chute. Probably the greatest 72 second rush I have ever had. It was amazing and something that I can't even describe. After 72 seconds the chute opened and we sailed down for about 6 min. I remember my instructor saying to me after the parachute opened, "We lived!." I thought, "Oh, good."
Let me begin by apologizing for leaving you hanging for so long with chapter II to my PDX visit. Taking any type of vacation always means the week following is endless hours of catch up and organization. Plus, I wanted to make sure everyone got a chance to see my dad master "the dance." Thursday night was reserved for HT (Hawthorne Theatre). I told Nic that when we were home I wanted to see a show in our old sanctuary. It just so happened to be the Supersucker's which is one of Noodle's favorite bands. Well, we didn't quite make it to the show but we did however make sure we had a quick photo shoot in the green room. (sorry Eddie we drank your booze and ate your hummus).The next morning we headed off to Cannon Beach for a weekend of "I do's", dancing, drinking and fun. Weddings never get old, especially when you get have your family and best friends under one roof. I wish Deb would get married more often. Also, I wish Trevor would have gotten the large beer. Something tells me the next family wedding might be for Larry and Jerry.
Nic and I went back to PDX for 5 days for his sister's wedding. It was my first trip back since I have moved to the island. I was excited to go and plug back into my old life, which I miss dearly. We took the red eye out of HNL Tuesday night and landed in PDX about 7am the next morning. From that moment on it was the Amazing Race to see how many friends and events we could pack into the next 5 days which is why I am going to have to break this post down by chapters.
On Wednesday afternoon I made a visit to my old work. It was great to see the faces that I used to spend 70% of days with. I also payed a visit to Shannon's new fancy office which just so happens to be about 5 blocks from my old work. (That would have been dangerous.) After making my downtown rounds I kid napped Henry for a sleepover and doggy date.
Okay, here's where it gets good. On Wednesday we had family dinner and my parents threw me a belated birthday party. For those of you who have ever joined us for family dinner you know that we aren't talking casseroles and grace. We're talking a guaranteed hangover the next day. At one point Phyl and I decided to master a circus move that we planned on performing at Deb's wedding: Nic and Dad decided to compose a song for the wedding:
And I think I captured the world's best Yahtzee dance:
Turning 30 was not hard but turning 31, well, let's just say I'm officially starting to feel the wonderful changes that getting older brings you. My boobs are growing down instead of out, each day I feel like I have to ad 10 more minutes to my workout, and now I have to moisturize every night before I go to bed otherwise I wake up looking like dried fruit. Aside from all this though it did not prevent me from having a great birthday. We turned the heat up in Honolulu Thursday night. Nic has a standing gig at Indigo every Thursday night where he sings and dj's in their green room. We rallied together a bunch of our friends who all met us there. Nic sang well but what he was spinning for the night was off the hook. We had the whole bar dancing until close. It was so fun. The bar staff there takes VERY good care of us so needless to say we put down a few cocktails. My favorite martini they have is a Saketini which is Sake and Vodka shaken with ginger and cucumber. I think I had so many of them that I was speaking Japanese by the end of the night.
As an early birthday present Nic surprised me with a trip to Kauai. I have heard many people say that this is the most beautiful island and sure enough, it was breath taking. Every corner you turned around felt like you were looking at a Walgreen's puzzle. Also John I think this is your island as there were chickens everywhere! Beautiful ones. We stayed at a fancy resort called Kauai Beach Resort complete with a breathtaking view of the ocean, 4 pools and oh yes, a water slide. We pretty much had the entire resort to ourselves so we made good use of the amenities. Our first day was spent doing what we do best...drinking by the pool and rolling the dice. Ironically the only other couple at the pool that day ended being a couple from Gladstone, Or. Go figure. (They were Korean of course). On day two we rented a car and explored the island. I love doing this with Nic and we have a good system down. We always rent a Seabring convertible (b/c it screams sophisticated couple) plug in our ipod, drop the top and off we go exploring. We found so many great nooks and crannies, caves, private beaches and great food. We have decided that Kauai is our new Eaglecrest.
Hawaii might be considered paradise but let me tell you, there are some odd things about it. So many that I think they are worth sharing so I have decided to create a series of posts called "That's Odd." My best friend has a series called Wordless Wednesday and I love it so this will be kind of an offshoot of that, just not at consistent.
My first one is one of my favorites. Tan mannequins.
This is a simple post but one worth sharing. Plus, it's about how awesome my husband is and I don't think I express that enough.
We both have never really been one to celebrate Valentine's Day but this year I was feeling extra guilty because I had to work so I went ahead and made us dinner reservations at one of the top Italian restaurants here. (he's a Guido after all). Done. Valentine's Day, check!
During that day I was explaining to someone how I don't think I have ever received flowers from Nic. Not that he doesn't do nice things for me all the time (like cook me every meal) but flowers have never really been his thing with me. To my surprise he picked me up from work with a dozen roses in hand! We had some time to kill before dinner which I figured we would just go grab a drink somewhere before hand. He ended up taking me down to the beach where we watched the sunset together and drank champagne. It was perfect! And if that wasn't enough he then surprised me with an early birthday gift which was two tickets to Kauai! Needless to say my lame attempt at Valentine's which was making dinner reservations looked pathetic.
