Pink bread: The verdict is in

Here are the guava dinner rolls from Foodland that I tried (with a little bit of puli puli chicken in the background).

Several of you have been asking if I’ve yet tried the pink guava bread, like the kind I first spotted at the KCC Farmers Market (I have since seen it in supermarkets, too, along with purple taro bread — see photo at the end of this post).

A few weeks ago, I did finally buy some of the pink bread at Foodland, a supermarket chain in Hawaii. Like I suspected, it tasted like Portuguese sweet bread — like regular white bread except slightly sweeter. It also had a bit of tangy-ness to it, which I guess comes from the guava in it. It didn’t taste super-fruity though. In fact, if I hadn’t read the label on the package, I wouldn’t have suspected there was any kind of fruit flavoring in it.

Would I buy it again? Probably not. But it sure is fun to look at!

Next on my "to try" list: purple taro bread!

Speaking of taro (which is what poi is made from), a while back I was walking past the McDonald’s in Waikiki, and in the window there was a promotional sign for taro pies. Apparently, along with the apple pies that they sell at all McDonald’s, taro pies are also sold in Hawaii (also on the menu: saimin, which is like a ramen-noodle soup). I’ve also seen taro-filled danishes and turnovers for sale at supermarket bakeries and the KCC farmers market.

So many foods to try, so little time!

I’m staying in Hawaii after all

I’ve decided that I just can’t leave Hawaii so soon after arriving, and that if I did, I’d probably end up regretting it. So I’m giving up my permanent-employee status and becoming a contractor, so I can continue to work for my employer from Hawaii. I’ll be sacrificing job stability, paid time off, and my stock options, but after thinking long and hard about it, I’ve concluded that it’s worth it if it means I can continue to live here.

I don’t yet know the exact date when I’ll lose my permanent-employee status. But when I do, it will be treated like a “layoff,” and for legal reasons, I’ll need to wait three months before starting as a contractor, during which I’ll be given severance pay. As you can imagine, I am very excited about having three months of paid time off from work! When was the last time I had three solid months during which I didn’t have to work or go to school? Um, probably when I was 4 years old! And if my hazy memories serve me correctly, life was pretty darn good back then!

I already have some plans for friends to visit me during that time off. But I’d also like to do some traveling of my own, especially since I won’t be getting any paid vacation time once I become a contractor. In February, I’m planning to visit Maui for the first time with a friend. And I still have yet to visit the Big Island, Molokai, and Lanai. I could easily spend my three months just island-hopping through Hawaii. And if I were really ambitious (and money were no object), I could head further southward and westward to some of my dream destinations: Tahiti, Fiji, Bali, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam. I’ll see what my schedule and budget allows!

Amy the cat is found!

Me and my recently found Amy are both smiling!

Last week was a very good week. My cat Amy, who was missing for nearly seven weeks, was found. Here’s how it all happened:

On September 11, I decided to make a last-ditch effort to find Amy. I had a hunch that if I could show a photo of Amy to all my neighbors, someone was bound to recognize her (assuming she was still alive). I had already done this on a small scale by going door to door and putting flyers on the doorsteps of the people on my street and the street behind me. But doing just that had proved to be physically exhausting, due to the very hilly terrain (i.e. steep driveways) in my neighborhood. I thought if could enlist the help of the U.S. postal service, I could do this on a much larger scale, and increase my chances of finding Amy. So I went online and ordered postcards from a direct-mail service with Amy’s photo and my phone number printed on them. At the same time, I bought a mailing list of all the addresses that were within a one-mile radius of my house and had the postcards mailed to those addresses.

On Sept. 23, the postcards began arriving in my neighbor’s mailboxes. I started getting phone calls, many from people who had not seen Amy, but wanted to express their sympathy and offered their support and prayers. This took me totally by surprise — I had no idea there were so many cat lovers in my neighborhood, because I hardly see any cats around here. I also had a few phone calls from people who wanted to know how I got their address. Once I told them how I did it, though, they were very nice.

During the first three days of phone calls, I got a lot of leads from people who said they had seen a cat that looked like Amy in a certain area. I rented a car so I could drive over at a moment’s notice to check out the leads, but none of them panned out. Usually, there was no cat to be seen by the time I got there, and in one case there was a cat on the scene, but it wasn’t Amy (although it did look quite a bit like her).

Then, on the fourth day after I started getting calls, I got a call from a woman named Bonnie Yamamoto who said that a cat that looked just like the one in the photo had been hanging around her backyard for the past month. I discovered she lived only about a quarter of a mile away from me. She said the cat usually came around her yard in the evening, so that night I went over to her house to see if the cat would come out if I called for it (this had worked for me in the past with Amy). So I went in their backyard and started calling for her, but no cat came. Still, Bonnie was adamant that it was my cat that she had seen, and she reassured me that the cat seemed to be in good health.

For the first time in more than six weeks, I started to feel like I was on the right path to finding Amy. The next day, I rented a trap from the Humane Society and set it up in Bonnie’s backyard. Bonnie and her son Taigo started leaving food out for Amy twice a day, just outside the entrance to the trap, and also inside of it, to try and lure her into the trap. Both times, Amy ate the food outside the trap, but not the food inside. When they left food just inside the trap, she still wouldn’t go into it to eat it. My cat was just too smart for her own good!

So the next day, I switched to plan B: I went over to Bonnie’s house in the early evening and sat quietly on her backyard porch while Bonnie and Taigo took their four dogs (yes, four!) for a walk, to see if Amy would come poking around looking for food after they’d left. I sat as still as I could, and about 45 minutes later, I was rewarded. Amy poked her head out of a bush, right by where the bowl of food had been left on the deck. When she spotted me, she stared at me as if she couldn’t figure out what she was seeing (a familiar face, but in the wrong place!). Cautiously, she backed into the bushes again. My heart sank — I thought maybe she hadn’t recognized me and had run off. Nevertheless, I slowly approached the bush and called her name. Suddenly, I heard her meowing like crazy (which she never does) and she poked her head out of the bush again! After sniffing my hand, she came out and let me pet her.

I finally got a good look at her — it was Amy all right, albeit a little thinner and sans collar, but otherwise healthy-looking. Before she could change her mind about coming home with me, I grabbed her and shut her inside the cat trap that was still sitting on the deck. Right after I did this, Bonnie and Taigo came back from their walk, and I was overjoyed to tell them that I had captured the cat, and that it indeed was Amy. Being animal lovers themselves, they were just as happy as I was, and in fact refused the reward I was offering. As Bonnie put it, “We just want to help each other.” In Hawaii, this willingness to help out your fellow human being with nothing expected in return is known as aloha, or aloha spirit. Despite what some say about aloha disappearing from Hawaii’s culture, it certainly proved to be alive and well in Waialae Iki that night!

My heroes: Bonnie Yamamoto (holding Annie), me, and Bonnie's son Taigo

When I got Amy home, she immediately gulped down three small cans of cat food. My other cat, Alice, didn’t recognize Amy at first, and got all hissy and puffy-tailed. But once Alice had a chance to sniff Amy and be around her for a while, she remembered her and calmed down. Amy is slowly getting used to being in a house again. She definitely wants to go out, but for the time being, I won’t let her. I want her to have time to get used to her new house, so she sees it as a safe place, rather than an unfamiliar place to flee from. I bought her a vest harness and have started taking her outside on a leash to let her get familiar with our yard and the surrounding yards.

Amy is ready for some outdoor action in her new pink camouflage harness. She'll need to wear this every time she goes outside, because I plan to secure a tracking device to it.

In the meantime, I have a tracking device on order that I’m going to attach to Amy’s vest harness (she gets out of her collars all the time, so I knew it would do no good to attach it to her collar) so that I can eventually let Amy go outside off leash. The tracking device sends out a radio signal, so in case Amy decides to “go on walkabout” again, I’ll be able to use a receiver to home in on her location. It works like that childhood game “Hot Beans Come for Supper”: The closer you are to the transmitter, the stronger the signal sounds on the receiver. It may sound like a tedious way to track down a lost cat, but I decided to go this route rather than using a GPS device for a couple of reasons. The GPS tracking devices for pets that are currently available in the U.S. are still rather large, and are more suitable for attaching to large-breed dogs. Also, if the pet is trapped in an enclosed area (like a garage or a shed), the GPS won’t work.

Yesterday I finished calling back all the concerned citizens who had called me when they got the postcard about Amy, to tell them that she had been found. I mostly left voicemails, but for the few I did get a chance to talk to, they sounded genuinely happy and relieved that Amy was found. And just this morning, Amy became a local celebrity when her story was featured on the local morning news show, Hawaii News Now Sunrise. Apparently, the show’s news director had received one of the postcards in the mail and asked a reporter to find out what it was all about. So last week, I got a call from Grace Lee, one of the show’s newscasters, who conducted a brief phone interview with me to get the details. She asked me to send in pictures of myself and Amy so that they could be shown on air during a short segment on today’s show, and arranged for me to call in to the studio at 8:45am this morning so I could talk live on air during the segment about how I found Amy.

The news segment went great: I wish I could attach a link to a video of it, but the show didn’t post the segment on their website, and I don’t know how to upload video from my Tivo. Basically, they showed pictures of the postcard, and of Amy wearing her vest harness, and of me, Bonnie, and Taigo, who I wanted to make sure were included in this story. And over the phone, I explained how I had sent out the postcards, and how I had eventually captured Amy, with Bonnie and Taigo’s help. The whole segment was probably not much more than two or three minutes, but it was a hoot to watch back on my Tivo. I’ll have to make sure Bonnie and Taigo see it, too.

I am so grateful, overjoyed, and relieved to have my cat back. I feel like a 10-pound weight has been lifted from my shoulders. And although it was a painful experience to go through, it did show me that there are a lot of good people here who genuinely care and are willing to help if I ever need it.

A short-lived dream

I received some bad news today. My employer’s human resources department informed me that they are not set up to handle state taxes or benefits in the state of Hawaii. Why they didn’t realize this months before, when they were first told of my plan to move to Hawaii, I’m not sure. But that doesn’t really matter now. The facts remain the same.

I was given the option of moving back to the Bay Area (with my moving expenses paid for by my employer), or changing from permanent-employee status to a contractor. After seeing several highly qualified friends struggle to find jobs this year, I decided I did not want to become a contractor and risk losing my position at the end of my term. I also do not want to lose all the benefits I receive as a permanent employee. So I will soon be moving back to the Bay Area.

This certainly isn’t how I expected things to turn out, not at this stage anyway. But life is unpredictable, and you have to be ready for anything to happen. I am disappointed that I won’t have much longer to live here, but I am glad that I at least got two months. Even in this short time, I’ve gotten a better sense of what it’s like to live here, rather than just visit, and the pros and cons that come with that. I’ve come to value more the long-standing relationships I have with friends, family members, and co-workers, where you feel comfortable enough to truly just be yourself and not feel the need to impress or “audition” to become someone’s new friend. I’m looking forward to enjoying those established friendships once again.

I don’t regret having moved to Hawaii, even knowing now how short my stay would end up being. The only thing I regret is losing one of my cats, but that could have happened in a new home in the Bay Area, too.  And I’m certainly NOT looking forward to going through the whole moving process yet again, although this time around, I’m happy my employer will be paying to move all my stuff across the Pacific!

I don’t know yet how soon I need to move back to the Bay Area, but I imagine I’ll need to do it sooner rather than later (maybe within the next six weeks or so?). I found out today that I am not covered for health benefits out here, which I was completely unaware of, so that alone is a strong incentive to get my butt back to California.

Rather than looking for a new place in Sunnyvale again, I think I’d like to try living in San Francisco. Over the years, several friends have urged me to move there, but at the time it didn’t seem worth the commute to work. But after this whole moving-to-Hawaii experience, I see things differently. I’ve come to realize that I need to get out more, and meet up with my friends more often, and be around more single people. I need to be around more people, period — maybe even live with roommates, to force me away from my self-isolating tendencies. San Francisco seems like it would offer a lot more of those opportunities than suburban Sunnyvale. Plus, I’ve grown to enjoy the benefits of being car-less, and I could more easily continue my new walking/public transportation lifestyle in SF. If you know of any available rentals in SF, or anyone in SF who’s looking for a roommate, please let me know.

In the time I have left here, I’ll try to pack in as many things as I can that I’ve wanted to experience while in Hawaii. So stay tuned over the next few weeks!

‘Hawaii Five-0’ premiere

The section with the white chairs set up right in front of the stage and screen was for "VIPs" only. We commoners had to sit behind them on the sand (or in my case, on a stone wall).

Right after work yesterday, I took the bus to Waikiki Beach, popped into the nearest ABC Store to stock up on snacks and a bottle of water, and then headed to Queen’s Beach, the section of Waikiki that’s right across Kalakaua Ave. from the Honolulu Zoo. I quickly found a space to sit on the stone wall that runs along the sidewalk, where I would still have a decent view of the stage and 60-foot screen planted at a distance in the sand. It was about 4pm, and already the beach was filling up with others who, like me, came to see the premiere of the new “Hawaii Five-0” TV series. Only three-and-a-half hours to kill before the actual screening starts!

Hawaiian music artist Willie K entertains the gathering crowd with his beautiful voice and guitar playing.

Luckily, there was some musical entertainment to help pass the time waiting. (Plus, sitting on Waikiki Beach watching the sun slowly sink in the sky isn’t the worst situation in the world to find yourself in!)

Local musician Taimane Gardner played a mean ukelele.

As the sun sets, the crowd grows and anticipation builds.

Finally, around 6:30pm, the motorcade of VIPs began arriving, led by Honolulu police officers on motorcycle. From where I was situated, all I had to do was turn around to see them driving by on Kalakaua Avenue. Unfortunately, all I saw was one dark SUV after another, each with its tinted windows rolled up. But suddenly, one of the SUVs driving by had a passenger-side window down, and out peeked Daniel Dae Kim! He waved to the crowd and smiled broadly, as if he were genuinely happy to see the turnout. (After completing his six-year stint on “Lost,” he and his family decided to remain living in Hawaii, so he’s kama’aina now.) One of the reasons I came to the premiere was because I was hoping to catch a glimpse of Daniel Dae Kim (I loved his character Jin on “Lost”), so I was really happy to have my wish fulfilled, and to see that he seemed like the nice guy I’d hoped he would be in real life. (Of all the VIPs who drove by, he was the only one to roll down his window and wave to the crowd.)

Look closely. See that light-colored speck in the middle of the SUV's passenger window? That's Daniel Dae Kim's waving hand! (Sorry the pic didn't come out better. In real life, you could actually see his face, too. And yes, his cheekbones really are stunning.)

The sun has almost completely set now, and the crowd has filled the entire beach. There were an estimated 5,000 spectators.

After the VIPs arrived, we had to wait around for about an hour while they took pictures on the red carpet and got interviewed by E! and Entertainment Tonight. From where I was sitting, I could see none of that happening. The crowd had to settle for watching the University of Hawaii cheerleaders dance onstage while the university’s marching band played (what else?) the theme song from “Hawaii Five-0.”

The hotels lining Waikiki Beach light up the night sky, as the natives grow restless.

Next came a long string of guest speakers: the mayor of Honolulu, the former mayor of Honolulu, the governor of Hawaii, the president of CBS, the daughter of the original show’s creator (the now deceased Leonard Freeman), and the new show’s producers. They all said pretty much the same thing: How great this show is, and how great the people of Hawaii are, and how wonderful this show will be for Hawaii’s economy. The only speaker that really stood out for me was actor Al Harrington, who played Ben on the original show. He’s a commanding presence, with his big build and storyteller’s voice. He read aloud a letter from actor James MacArthur , who played the original “Danno” and who was unable to attend the premiere. The letter expressed MacArthur’s enthusiasm for the new series, and his fond memories of filming the old one. Toward the end of reading aloud the letter, Harrington became choked up with emotion.

Al Harrington, who played Ben on the original "Hawaii Five-O" series, pays tribute to the family of the show's creator, the late Leonard Freeman.

Actors Scott Caan (the new "Danno") and Daniel Dae Kim (the new Chin Ho Kelly) stand onstage while the show's producers congratulate themselves.

Finally, the cast members of the new show were brought onstage, although the producers did all the talking. The one exception was Daniel Dae Kim, who plays the new Detective Chin Ho Kelly. He said he was overwhelmed by the turnout of 5,000 people and thanked the crowd for their support. I just love him! It was the first time I’d ever heard him speak fluent English (his “Lost” character, Jin, spoke only in Korean and broken English).

The dashing Daniel Dae Kim and his lovely co-star, Grace Park, standing next to him.

And at last, it was time to see the premiere episode of the new “Hawaii Five-0.” I won’t reveal any spoilers for those of you planning to watch it next Monday when it airs for the rest of the country. All I will say is that it’s much more violent than the original series. It is action-packed to the max, but it also has some nice touches of humor. I will be watching for another reason, though: Daniel Dae Kim.

Got my butt kicked today …

… by the Pacific Ocean. Today I attempted my first watersport — sea kayaking. I thought that would be a relatively easy way to, er, get my feet wet. Well, I got my feet wet, all right. That, and the rest of me.

I had seen people sea kayaking before, and it had looked pretty benign to me. The kayakers were safe and snug in their little boat, leisurely paddling along, enjoying the sea breezes. Well, I’m here to tell you that it looks a lot easier than it is. Either that, or I am really lame at kayaking (which is a distinct possibility).

The idyllic setting of my oceanic beating

My friends Darin and Joanna were kind enough to let me tag along on their excursion to their uncle’s oceanfront home in Diamond Head, a perfect location for launching a kayak. After I had suited up in a life-vest (a very good decision, it turned out), Darin helped me carry the kayak down to the beach and showed me how the rudder worked by pushing a left and right pedal (pushing down on the left pedal turns the kayak to the left, pushing down on the right pedal turns the kayak to the right). This, combined with paddling on either side of the canoe, is how you maneuver the kayak.

So with a very ungraceful belly flop into the kayak and a push out to sea from Darin, I was on my way. Darin had told me that the key was to paddle straight onward into waves, because a wave hitting the side of the kayak would capsize it. So for the first five minutes or so, I was doing great, paddling straight into those waves, getting used the pedals for steering.

But after a while, I noticed the waves were getting stronger. I was still able to paddle right into them, but I thought maybe I was going too far out into the ocean and I should think about turning back. And this was my fatal flaw — I later learned from Darin that I should have paddled even further out, because the waves go away once the water gets deeper. But not knowing this, and being a scaredy-cat, I decided it was time to turn around. So right after I paddled into a wave, I furiously tried to turn the canoe around before the next wave hit. But I couldn’t paddle fast enough (another error I made: I should have back-paddled instead, as this turns the canoe around much faster than forward-paddling) and the next wave flipped me over.

After I recovered from the initial shock of capsizing, I realized my feet could still touch the bottom of the reef. This helped me get my bearings, but I had a heck of a time turning the kayak right side up again. (Mental note: Must start upper-body strength training program tomorrow.) Finally, I was able to right the kayak. The next hurdle was getting myself back into the kayak again, with the waves hitting me. After several unsuccessful attempts (I think one of those attempts flipped the kayak again, even), I was able to flop myself into the kayak. Luckily I was pointing back toward the beach, and from there the waves coasted me back to shore.

At this point I should have called it a day, but I was so certain that I had learned from my mistakes and could do much better the second time out. So Darin pushed me out again, and this time I was able to do one successful turn-around using the back-paddling method. But on my second attempt to turn around, I got slammed again, and this time I was much more tired than I was the first time out. I didn’t even have the strength to right the kayak, so I lamely clung to it and let the waves carry me back to shore.

Two passersby were kind enough to help me drag the kayak out of the ocean, and then I just plopped out the beach in exhaustion. Several yards away, a gargantuan Hawaiian monk seal was happily sunning itself on the sand, reveling in the mixture of sunlight and gently lapping waves that licked its body to keep it cool. It was so surreal, laying in a daze on the beach and watching this huge creature that was completely oblivious to my plight and didn’t have a care in the world.

In the end, poor Darin had to paddle the kayak back out into the ocean to bring it back to the beach house, because the current had taken me so far leeward that it was impossible to carry it back via the beach. I owe him a huge debt of gratitude for all that I put him through during my, um, learning experience.

Despite my failings as a kayaker, I did have fun, and it was quite exciting to try something new, and the water felt wonderful (the Pacific here is not the same frigid Pacific that’s in Northern California!). But when I got home to change, I was shocked to discover in the bathroom mirror that my arms and legs were covered in bruises and scratches from the waves raking me along the coral reef! I honestly don’t remember getting most of those injuries, as I have skin that bruises as easily as a banana. But these battle scars serve as a good reminder as to who the winner was today in my attempt to conquer the ocean … and it sure wasn’t me.

The aftermath

My neighborhood

I live in southeast Honolulu, in a hilly neighborhood called Waialae Iki (WHY-uh-lie EE-kee). From Waikiki, it’s about a 10-minute drive windward (east) and mauka (toward the mountains). From my house, it’s about a 10-minute drive further windward and makai (toward the ocean) to Hanauma Bay, the popular snorkeling spot. Honolulu Airport is about a 20-minute drive leeward (west) from my house.

Here are some photos I took while walking in my neighborhood recently:

At the base of the hill where I live is Kalani High School. On Sundays, their marching band practices. If I went to this high school, I would’ve been ditching class all the time to go to the beach!

And here’s their drum corps. It’s quite a large marching band!

About halfway up the hill toward my house, there’s a nice lookout point where you can see Diamond Head crater …

… and the Kahala Hotel …

… and Waialae Iki Park. The park also has a big playing field (can’t see it in this photo) where there always seems to be at least one soccer game or practice going on.

Good books about moving to Hawaii

I’ve recently discovered that several readers of this blog are dreaming about, considering, planning, or in the process of moving to Hawaii. I have a few books I’d like to recommend that were helpful in making my decision to move here, and in giving me realistic expectations of what it would be like to live here.

“So You Want to Live in Hawaii” by Toni Polancy. This book is about 10 years old, so the information on cost of living is out of date, but the rest of the book is still relevant and brimming with info on every aspect of life: jobs, education, housing, kids, pets, etc. Polancy provides a cultural snapshot of each island, to help movers decide where they want to live. She also includes real-life stories of people who moved to Hawaii — some who stayed, and some who didn’t — and what it was like for them to adjust to living here. Polancy presents a realistic look at life in the islands, both the pros and the cons.

“The Hawaii Pet Book” by Toni Polancy. Written by the same author as the book above, this focuses on special considerations for pet owners. I’d say 75% of the book reads like a general pet-care book and isn’t specific to Hawaii. However, the remaining 25% contains valuable information about issues unique to Hawaii, such as pet-friendly housing (which is remarkably difficult to find in Honolulu), the rabies quarantine requirements, and (what I found most valuable) local health hazards: bacterial diseases, parasites, and poisonous plants and animals. I was freaked out after I read about the fatally poisonous Bufo toads, but thankfully, they don’t seem to inhabit my neighborhood. Still, it’s good to know what to look out for and what to do for first aid.

“Culture Shock! Hawaii” by Brent Massey. This book is similar in content to Polancy’s “So You Want to Live in Hawaii,” but with more emphasis on the cultures of Hawaii’s various ethnic groups and how they may affect your social life and work life. Massey gives tips for adjusting to cultural differences and “fitting in.” In one chapter, he also provides practical info on housing, Internet service, banking, taxes, education, transportation, etc. Since this was published in 2009, the information is much more up to date than Polancy’s book, so this serves as a good supplement.

KCC Farmers’ Market

Entrance to the KCC Farmers' Market. Come in a bikini top, if you so desire.

Every Saturday morning at Kapioalani Community College (KCC) in Honolulu (right by Diamond Head crater), there’s a big farmers’ market featuring produce, foods, and other products that are all grown/made in Hawaii. I’ve been wanting to go this for quite some time, as it’s a well-known attraction and mentioned in all the Hawaii tourist guidebooks. Finally, last Saturday, I took the bus out there and saw what all the fuss was about. Besides numerous produce stands (including several organic produce stands, I was happy to see), there were tons of prepared-food booths featuring all kinds of wonderful stuff — it’s like a food festival combined with a farmers’ market. Next time I go, I’m heading straight for the French toast booth for breakfast first!

The lines for the prepared foods do get long, so if you go, be prepared to wait patiently. Go as early as you can (it opens at 7:30am, and ends at 11am) to beat the crowd at its fullest. All the vendors are listed on the sponsoring agency’s site. Here are some of the highlights from my trip:

I had never seen orchids this color before: bright yellow-orange, the same color as Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.

And I’d never seen bread this color before! Check out this pink guava bread! I’m gonna buy some next time to see what it tastes like. I’m guessing it’s probably like Portuguese sweet bread.

Ice, ice, baby! This is how the powdery perfection known as shave ice is made. Note the big block of ice inside the machine. The young man is molding the shavings into a heaping mound in a small cup, over which he will pour a delicious sweet syrup in the flavor of the customer’s choosing. I saw one guy get “The Pink Cadillac” — the syrup turned the ice a beautiful light pink color. I failed to note what the flavor was. Guava, maybe?

Denied! Argh. I gotta come earlier next time. This booth listed some very interesting mochi flavors, including sweet potato haupia (coconut pudding) and liliko’i (passion fruit) cheesecake.

Grillin’ up some abalone, right in their shells. There was a long line of Japanese tourists at this booth. There were so many people crowded around the booth, I had trouble getting this shot, as you can see.

So what did I end up buying? A baby watermelon, sprouted-wheat bread, granola, sugar-glazed almonds, an apple turnover, milk chocolate with cacao “nibs” in it, and a “Hawaiian ginger ale” (very strong ginger flavor). As you can see, I started healthy, and then my sweet tooth got the better of me! I did manage to resist the beignets booth, though! (The line was too long.)

A typical workday

Where I start my workday

Where I end my workday

My workday now starts at 7:30am. I’m still working my same Pacific Time hours, while the rest of my life operates on Hawaiian Time. Currently, Hawaiian Time is three hours earlier than Pacific Time — that is, until Daylight Saving Time ends in November. Then, because Hawaii doesn’t have Daylight Saving Time, Hawaiian Time will be only two hours behind Pacific Time.

I thought starting work three hours earlier than I used to would be difficult to adjust to, but actually it hasn’t been bad at all — maybe because I can just roll out of bed and get right to work? I think the sun comes up earlier here, too, so it looks later in the morning than it really is. Plus, I’ve discovered that if you start your workday very early, you finish it with part of the afternoon still left for doing whatever you want! Yes, I’m liking my new workday schedule a lot more than I thought I would!

As someone who lives alone, one concern I had about turning into a full-time telecommuter was that I would get “cabin fever” and would turn into a crazy cat lady from lack of human contact. I seem to have resolved that issue with a little daily routine I’ve worked out in the last couple weeks since I started telecommuting. Every day around noontime, I pack up my laptop and take a 30-minute walk to Kahala Mall. I grab lunch there, find a spot to sit somewhere by the big fountain in the mall, and work the rest of my day from there. There are always lots of people sitting, eating, and working on laptops by the fountain, so it’s a nice change of scenery from the solitude at home. Now that I’ve been going there every weekday, I’m starting to notice other “regulars” like me, and the people who work there are starting to recognize me, too.

After work, I buy any groceries I might need from the Longs or Whole Foods that are part of the mall, and then I hike back home. Walking home is a little harder because the last 10 minutes is up a hill, and if I’ve bought anything from the store, I’m carrying that extra weight, too. By the time I make it to the top of the hill where I live, I am a hot, sweaty mess. This is where having a swimming pool really comes in handy. After a quick dip, I’m totally refreshed.