June 24, 2008

Yet another music quiz



More bands than 8-bit rockers!

Now with answers!

This quiz made the rounds a couple years ago but I'd never seen it till recently.

Make a pot of coffee, turn off the phone, and make sure the boss is out of the office since it's gonna take a while and you'll need help from friends and/or family.

DOWNLOAD HERE - you'll need to have MS Excel to play.

June 22, 2008

Dinner on the deck redux


Eating out on the deck in the summer, just like back in 2005.

June 17, 2008

Father's Day



There was this one time when Kim said "OK. It's your birthday. Pick where you want to go out to eat."

Much to her chagrin, I picked Denny's.

Now in my defense, I did pick the best Denny's in the whole wide world. Which one you ask?


The one across the street from (and with a fantastic view of) Wakiki Beach. Sadly, it's no longer a Denny's and the Grand Slam Breakfasts anytime 24/7 are a long forgotten greasy dream/

This Father's Day Kim showed that she'd been paying attention for the last 19.5 years (yes, you read that right). Instead of asking "Where do you want to go?" she had her own suggestion ready to go when everybody was up and about last Sunday Morning.

She suggested a place that had special significance for me, one that made me wax nostalgic for the days when I was the kid and my dad would get up early to make sure that I had a special Sunday breakfast waiting for me when I woke up.

"How about Jack In The Box?"

Ahhhh. Croissant supreme combo meal. What a treat.

Yes. A Jack In The Box croissant was my Proustian madeleine, transporting me back to Tucson Arizona in the 1980's. Perhaps not as interesting a voyage as fin de siecle Paris but it's all I got, so deal.

Of course the kids had no idea (until I told them) that this was such a treat for me. Jack in the box. Where I drank my first cup of coffee as a 14 year old (or so). Gene and I got up early one weekend morning, drove across town and before getting started on a solar water heater kit for the house that we would build at a local school cafeteria under the supervision of somebody who (unlike us) knew his hammers from his screwdrivers. Before this we stopped off for a breakfast at JITB.

I'm sure it was loaded with so much sugar and half & half/non-dairy creamer, I would gag on if I were to drink it today, but damned if I can't picture that JITB on the corner of Campbell and Broadway (OK a block or two east of Campbell, but you know the one).

Figuring that the kids would like something more, well, kid-like, I got them the French Toast sticks which came with syrup and a dusting of powdered sugar.

Jake was happily chomping away when he took a look over at my Supreme Croissant.

"I want some!"

I rip off a chuck...hand it to him.

"More than that!....Let's switch...You can have mine"

I shudder to admit it, but I honestly got a little choked up....



The rest of the day was as mellow and relaxed as you could imagine. Watched the kids jump about at gymnastics.

Went home and played some Waterworks. Watched the swordfight from Princess Bride to give us ideas on choreography.

NOTE: Now when swordfighting Jake will throw his green foam weapon up, conspicuously switch hands and exclaim "I am not lefthanded!"



Went to Chuck E. Cheese/the ceramics store to 1. Play the Star Wars video game and 2. pick up Lily's handpainted ceramic dog bowl for S. Sparkle.

Then off to the beach to play in the sand and watch the full on summer swell until the sun went down.

Day well spent.

No. I've not taken up huffing...


Pleny people around the museum got a kick out of me in my makeup for my Cetacean Idol bluescreen work. Hope you get as much enjoyment as they did....

Take a look at this to see what the facepaint was all about:



Must say it made my day when I made this highlight reel of Cetacean Idol facts/songs/judges, posted it to YouTube and found out that there were already videos of people playing my game!

Way cool.

June 15, 2008

A ride on TheBoat



Uncle Charlie (aka Zach's Dad) had been telling us about TheBoat ofor a while now, but we hadn't got it together with them until the other day.

TheBoat is one of those classic city/state traffic relief demonstration boondoggles: too many people drive so, hmmmm, let's offer boat service! Except make it really difficult for them...like not allowing parking at the "commuter" end of the line.

But that being said, when you stop and think about it as a simple FUN/$ ratio and not as a means of commuting, it's a helluva great deal. Here's the scoop:

  • 1hr boat ride each way along the south side of O‘ahu from Aloha Tower to Barber's Point

  • Spectacular views

  • Indoor seating with A/C

  • outdoor seating with great view of the sizeable wake...

  • ...cuz TheBoat hauls ass


Total cost, round trip for me and two chillun: $6
First intro to maritime adventures: well, still that same price, as above....
Getting both kids back to Aloha Tower with nobody having tossed their respective cookies: worth considerably more than $6 but no, not priceless. Let's be real.

Newest creation


Just finished a Yak. Not the beast of burden but the Soviet WWII fighter.

June 09, 2008

Jake graduates!


Next stop kindergarten. Jake didn't give us the satisfaction of letting us layer on the leis until we couldn't see his blue eyes. Took them all off except the homemade lei by Tutu Kane and Lily.


"And so my fellow graduates, this is not an end, but rather a beginning...."



The two Children Center alums"

"Yeah? You should see the other guy!"


Went to pick up Lily the other day and found her nursing a seriously nasty looking bump. She collided with her friend who escaped completely uninjured and left Lily with a Rocky Balboa level shiner. Took three days till Lil would let me take a picture of it. By that time we had taken a battery of x-rays to insure the soundness of her zygomatic arch.

Took Lily a couple days to want to be seen in public as well, and that was fine with me since I'm sure a few people were thinking "Hmmm....CPS...where's their number?" when the two of us would walk by.

June 08, 2008

June 07, 2008

Guitaircraft Carrier

Came home to this interesting mashup the other day:

Whales Exhibit

So it finally opened. On May 16th we had what by Bishop Museum standards was a pretty damn good opening night crowd: probably about 500 members and friends.

Definitely a big team effort with help from education, collections, B & G, and many more.... Here's us moving everybody's favorite whale related collections piece from the Vert Zoo collection: our whale penis boat bumper. Yep.

Back in the whaling days, resourceful sailors used every part of the whale's penis. And yes, it really does take three people to move it since it's stuffed with sawdust.

Here's a picture of me regaling our summer intern with an amusing anecdote about summering in the Hamptons, sailing with Bill Buckley and...wait.

No, this is me pretending I have a 6 foot cock. That's right.


Kids playing with the custom made, handpainted foam puzzles:



And some more playing "Humpback Migration" - basically "Candyland" with blubber. Mmmmmm...muktuk!



Brain (whale and human) models for comparison and lice (real and just whale) to gross out the kiddies:



Random bones from the collection and our life sized whale tail wall in the background:



Some humans for scale:



Of course the big draw isn't all the extra junk we all worked so hard to make, but the big whale robots:






Here's a link to the inspiration for the above video.