Koko Head/Costco

I had two adventures today. 1st was Costco...Honolulu has the busiest Costco in the world...yup I experienced that shiznit today. First off, the parking lot is a mad house, even the spots in BFE are taken. Getting in and maneuvering your cart takes a special talent!!! Holy shiz...there are real live cart traffic jams...puts 520 to shame...lol. I got my milk and a few other things that of course were not on my list..can't pass up pineapples from Maui :)

2nd was Koko Head. It's 1059 steps to the top, going over old rail ties. Half way up is a ravine that you have to climb over...best not to look down! When I went 3 weeks ago, my heart rate was soaring and I seriously thought I was going to pass out. My legs were like jelly coming down. This time around, not so much. My heart rate was much lower and I made it to the top in 35 minutes. I even had my backpack on, full of frozen bottles of water. My daily 6 mile walks to work are paying off :) The hike is pretty crazy but the carrot at the end of the stick is the AMAZING 360 views from the top. It was clear today, so I was able to see Molokai in the distance, as well as the body surfers at Sandy Beach.

Good times today and to top it off...Desperate Housewives season premiere...woohoo.

Back to work tomorrow and 5 more days til the weekend. A friend of mine is coming to town for a week...should be good times. Can't wait to show her my new home and all the amazing things it has to offer :)


Half way up


View of Hawaii Kai from the halfway point


Hanauma Bay


From the very top


Koko Crater

Grateful

I'm seriously grateful today. I spent most of the afternoon on the beach right in front of Duke's, listening to the live music, people watching, swimming and hanging around to watch the sunset. As 6:30 approached, swarms of people came out on the beach to take pics of the sunset. It really made me appreciate what I had...I live in paradise and get to see/do these things every day and these peeps are on vacation and if they are lucky, they get to do it for about a week once a year. As I walked back to my apartment, I had a little extra skip in my step :)

Earlier in the day, I cruised over to Cake Couture to check out their cupcake goodness. Funny thing, is that I had been to their location (they are in a strip mall) in May and didn't even know it! The shop was cute and their cupcakes looked SUPER YUMMO. They only make certain flavors on certain days, so no marshmallow today :( BUT they did have chocolate haupia (coconut filling) cupcakes with a scrumptious whipped cream topping with chocolate shavings...got one of those and also a vanilla one, just cuz it had a pink wrapper...lol. Since it was really hot out, I figured I better eat the chocolate one asap. OMG, it was to die for!!! I wore half of it on my face. Cake Couture was definitely much better than Hokulani Bakery.

So I wanted some milk to go with my cupcake goodness, so I walked into Foodland next door. Um, $8 for a gallon...yeah no...I'll wait to get it at Costco for $4. While I was looking at the milk, the OJ was there too...$10 for a gallon of freaking OJ!!! Oh and get this...you know Tampico Punch...the super ghetto fruit juice that sells for .99/gallon...here it's $5/gallon!!!! Needless to say, I drink a lot of water...lol.



Cake Couture


The goods on my dashboard...lol


Coconut filling in the middle...YUM!


Sunset


Chilling by the water

Hey Mac...

it's cheese. Miss you Buns!

Smells like Seattle...

The building I live in right now has a mini mall on the ground floor, which includes a Starbucks and a McDonald's. When I walked out the door I could smell the coffee...it smelled soooooooo good and I don't even drink coffee! Also made me miss home...hubby, cats and friends. But as I walked to work, jamming to my tunes on my iPod, I saw the most incredible rainbows...also a DOUBLE rainbow...never seen one of those before! I also proceeded to get soaked. It rained so freaking hard, I was completely soaked from sweat and rain...gross...oh well, at least it wasn't cold.

After work I cruised over to Restaurant Row to the Hokulani Bake Shop to try out some of their cupcakes. It's a cute little shop and some pretty good flavors to choose from. I got a Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Cupcake and a Paradise Coconut Cupcake. They also had really cute cookies so I got a shaka cookie that said 'mahalo.'

As I was walking with my cute little box of cupcakes...low and behold here comes the effing monsoon again...almost the exact same place it soaked me in the morning! Needless to say, I was hauling ass trying to get home and make sure my little cupcakes were safe :)

They made it safely and I got to test them...very good. A little dense and very rich, but not dry in the least. I'm excited to try Cake Couture this weekend...but that means I will have to climb Koko Head to burn it off :::sigh:::

Is it bad that all I had for dinner was 2 cupcakes??? I wonder what's on the menu tomorrow???


The double rainbow on my way to work this morning!


Isn't that awesome :)


The Hibiscus that greet me every morning



My poor box is all soaked!


The goods!




Soaking wet, enjoying my cupcake

First day of fall!

It was 89 degrees today...haha. Gotta love it!

I'm finally done with all my online training and I get to get my hands dirty at work tomorrow...woohoo. Although with the current market conditions...should be GREAT times...lol. I did find out today that my company will pay for my MBA...UH here I come!

Plate lunches...must stop eating them! Every day someone is buying us lunch or bringing in manapua or malsadas...OMG...the 6 miles I'm walking everyday is just for maintaining...jeez. Good thing I have a gym in my new place!

Mai Tai Bar

So today was super chill. I was going to head out to Koko Head and climb today but I was so fried from Kailua that I decided to give the melanoma a rest today. So I cruised over to my other apartment and checked out the new weight machines we got and they had a trainer showing us how to adjust...blah blah. After I cruised across the street and got some octopus poke and chocolate haupia (coconut pudding) cake. Took a nap and then headed out to the Mai Tai Bar at Ala Moana with my co-worker, Jean. Dude...they mean business, they are freaking strong mai tai's. Good pupus too...poke, calamari and chix tenders w/huli huli! Good times to be had at the Mai Tai Bar :)

Aloha and asta manana!

Kailua for breakfast...

I met up with an old co-worker today! She was in Kailua for a wedding so we decided to eat at Boots & Kimo's for their famous banana pancakes with macadamia nut sauce and and pulehu ribs...YUMMO! It held me over for the entire day.

Since I was already out there, I decided to make it a day and hang out at the beach...Kailua is probably the most beautiful on Oahu. It's also a popular spot for paddle canoes and kayaking. The water is the most amazing color I've ever seen and the sand is almost white and super fine/soft. I enjoyed laying there and people watching and would take a dip in the water to cool off. Turns out I got to swim with a turtle!!! It was so close to shore and was just coming up for air.



A message for my special biatches!


This was the cutest dog, he was chilling on the beach with me and would go chase his ball in the water.



My lucky penny I found in the sand.

After frying myself, I headed back and since I had taken the Pali Highway...there are few look outs including the Pali lookout where you can see the steep mountains where Kamehameha threw warriors over the cliffs. They were pretty amazing views and it was SUPER windy...almost spooky like.


On my way to the lookout.


Some wild roosters I encountered...um okay.

Cupcakes!!!

So last night I was reading Honolulu's Best and it had the perfect cover...CUPCAKES!!! I guess Cake Couture is the place to go for the bomb diggity cupcakes. So that is on my to do list this weekend :) Supposedly they have a marshmallow filled cupcake...I will eat that in honor of the OG cupcake princess...FU.

Oh and can I just say how excited I am tomorrow is Friday!!! My brain is fried today...all day training...ick. I don't think I can take anymore training on bonds and commercial paper...ack.

TGIF or shall I say Aloha Friday...wooohoooo nevertheless!

Time is a flying...

holy shiz it's already Wednesday! Today was CRAZY at work especially with all the effing craziness with the market. Who knew that the reserve money market was gonna fall under a buck!!!! I was fielding angry peeps all day...ay ya yi! But I did get a check for $1.1M...NICE...and some other dude wrote me a check for half a mil! The day had a perfect ending. One of our money managers is in town and took us out for some bomb ass Japanese beer...Echigo and some serious sushi.

After getting home, I cruised over to my other apartment, just cuz I could and laid on the couch for awhile and read Honolulu's Best...I found where I can get the best cupcake...Cake Couture...watch out!

A good buddy is in town so I'm excited to see her this week!!! Bring on the mai tai's...woo hoo.

Asta pastas!

My car has arrived!!!

My phone rang about 9:30 this morning and I almost let voicemail pick it up...good thing I didn't cuz it was Matson telling me my car had arrived and was ready for pick up!!! My very awesome boss gave me a ride to pick it up. My dumb ass was contemplating walking to go get it...5 miles in the industrial side of town...probably not a good idea...duh. It felt so weird driving my car in a new place...none of my preset stations worked, the air coming through the windows even smells different. Cruising along Ala Moana to some Hawaiian tunes was a very odd/awesome feeling :)

I've been thoroughly enjoying my walks to work in the morning...it's almost 3 miles but the weather is so beautiful...riding the bus seems like a waste. My favorite part of the walk is going by Ward Center...they have tons of plumeria trees lining it and the smell is almost orgasmic...takes you to another world, especially if you close yours eyes for a second...the smell of the plumeria and the surf from across the street...to die for.

I get my keys to my new place tomorrow!!! So for 2 weeks, I will have 2 homes in Waikiki...that'll never happen again...lol.

Here are some pics of my new digs...these are not my pics...from craigslist ad...I'll try and bring my camera tomorrow and take pics :)

2 weeks already!!!

Wow, it's been 2 weeks since I arrived!!! I've been very bad at updating...mostly cuz I've been stressing about finding a permanent place to live! Never fear...today was the day that I found our "permanent" place to call home! Funny thing is that I can see my new home from my current home...lol...I can look out my bedroom window and see my new building. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the location I'm at...not smack in Waikiki with all the tourists but close enough. I'm right off of Ala Moana Blvd across from the Ilikai and Hilton Hawaiian Village (fireworks every Friday!).

My new apt is a tiny 2 bedroom but has some awesome amenities: saltwater pool, gas bbq's, gazebos, putting green, 2 party rooms, library, weight room, cardio room, ping pong...haha, 2 PARKINGS (unheard of in Waikiki), bike storage, board stoarage, across the street from a grocery store, bank and it's not on a super busy street :) I LOVE IT and it's about a 2 minute walk to the water!!!

To celebrate my new apartment...I went to the beach and slathered on my super awesome "browning" lotion and fell asleep on the beach. Lots of VOG today and I guess it makes you tired? Guess so, I was drooling on my book when I woke up.

So what have I been up to the last couple weeks...

-my first day of work
-moving offices to a new building
-learning the bus system
-looking for a place to live
-climbing Koko Head (1059 steps to the top!)
-renting a car and hanging out with some friends in Ewa Beach
-learning how to pronounce things
-surviving the busiest Costco in the country
-walking, walking, walking...I even walk 3 miles to work everyday!
-trying to adjust to the time change
-watched the Aloha Parade

All in all, life in the land of Aloha is fantabulous :)

Labor Day

Holy shiz I walked A LOT today! Since I brought lots of long sleeve shirts with me, I figured I should get some cute short sleeve tops so I don't burn up. I had some gift cards to Macy's and wanted to go to Walmart to get some snacks for my mini fridge. Armed with my flip flops (rubbah slippas), iPod and beach bag, I hit the streets.

The Macy's in Waikiki is a mini one and not much selection but the staff was uber friendly. I had an expired registry rewards card and they went out of their way so I could spend my $11...lol. They gave me a map to the Macy's at Ala Moana...the lady told me to take the bus but I was being cheap and didn't want to pay the $2...I'd rather walk. Boy did I walk!!! It was hot out and I hadn't really eaten much. By the time I got to the mall I was dripping and my shorts were falling down, like butt crack falling down...lol. I passed a girl with a Ross bag...my cheap ass heart skipped a beat...woohoo! Got some stuff at Macy's and asked how to get to Walmart/Ross and headed to the food court...it was effing packed! Um, yeah, I think I'll just get something I can eat and walk with. So I got real creative and got an acai jamba juice :) I then cruised over to Nordie's to see if they had an Anastasia counter because mama's gotta have perfect brows! THEY DID! The lady at the counter was super helpful and gave me the waxer's card and showed me the way to Walmart...like literally walked all the way out the door with me...talk about Aloha spirit! I have encountered nothing but overwhelmingly nice people...makes me smile :)

I am now off to watch the Champions parade...I guess it's the little league world series or something like that.

Tomorrow is my first day of work...I'm actually very excited!!! I have to figure out my bus route cuz my walk would be 3.5 miles...um no.

Off to the parade...aloha!