Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Vets Day Weekend

What a pleasant weekend - I need more of these. If the boss ok's flex time maybe I'll get `em!

Paddled Friday. It was mostly wahine. It felt good to be back on the water.

I stopped by the new Safeway afterwards. It's a strange store to have in our neighborhood, and I'm still torn on what I think. It replaced a bunch of local stores (Diamond Head Video with its Adults-only back room, the Korean nail salon, Surfers for Jesus Surf Shop) - and now we have this strip that's all chains - Safeway, Cold Cream Creamery (or something like that), Starbucks ... all the usual shit you see at every suburban mall.

And yet the block was dirty, half vacant, and kind of ugly. Now it's big bright and dynamic. The development frames the rest of the street, and makes it feel alive. The evil WalMart did the same for Ke`eaumoku downtown.

The store itself is out of my price range - I went and priced. They had a lot of gourmet items - it was all very European. The place might work for special meals, or when I want to find that certain ingredient that no one else in the state has. I'm not sure how realistic so much high-end food is for my neighborhood, though. We'll see how long it lasts. The bakery looks good, so they'll have me there. I'll stick with Foodland for regular shopping, Cost-co for meat & cheese, Fujioka's for wine, and Tamura's for liquor.

Slept Saturday. Literally, I think I napped most of the day away. I did check out Roy's kendo tournament mid morning, but his round was over in two minutes. I had half-heartedly made big plans that night, but there wasn't much enthusiasm so I stayed home and watched more of Heroes. I'm not sure I'll make it through the season - the writing makes no sense at all & most of the actors are really bad.

Sunday was the big day. We had forty paddlers, so we took out six canoes and four one-mans. We didn't get back onto land until after 11am, so I've got some serious color again. Later went to Scott and Katherine's and relaxed and drank by the pool. Then to the Mandarin to meet up with Gary and his new boyfriend. After a mai-tai we went to Hula's for the beer bust. Then to Spices for dinner. Peter was supposed to join us, but had family commitments.

Gary burned me a bunch of French house music, so that provided the soundtrack to the rest of the weekend. Monday I didn't even try to do anything - it was gym, bike, laundry, dishes, vacuum, sleep.

Tonight I'll meet up with Peter after work and head to some Italian prince's house. I don't really know the details, beyond that the prince is a sponsor of his dance troupe & needs or wants something. It'll be my first brush with royalty (that Russian count doesn't count). Movin' on up ...

No comments: