Earlier this Week

A few snaps from this past week:

I had Monday off from work, so I biked down to the beach in front of 505 and collapsed on the sand for a little bit while waiting to get Happy Hour with a girlfriend.

{an armful of seashell bangles}

{hazy sunset during Happy Hour at Pacific'o}

A few snaps of happy and warm T-Bone:

And then on Tuesday, we had a torrential downpour that trapped T-Bone up on our Lanai.

{rain in Lahaina}

{a very unhappy T-Bone}

He found the only patch of dry ground up on our lanai, and he huddled into it, pressed up against our screen door.  When I attempted to take a video of the pouring rain, T-Bone bolted for the great indoors.  I don't think I've ever seen him move so fast.  Well, maybe that one time when he got chased by a cow up at the disc golf course at Poli Poli.

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Snaps from the Second Week of November

Okay, so the second week of November isn't over, but there were some definite highlights in the past few days that need to be shared.

First off, over the weekend, we got some storm action in Lahaina.  This is a major rarity.

I was out and about in town (just came out of the movies) when it began to pour.  I ducked into the bar at Fleetwood's to wait out the rain, and I took that picture from their second story window.  You can see that the storm has already pretty much passed, but look at the sidewalks!  They are sloshing with rain.  The storm was a pretty big deal.  Winter has come to Maui.

Later that day, Lahaina closed a portion of Front Street for "Second Friday."  Every major town in Lahaina hosts a Friday each month where there is music, festivities and activities to draw in a crowd.  Typically, Willie K., a major Hawaiian rockstar comes to play at Kimo's on Second Fridays in Lahaina, but he got cancelled because of the rain.

Bryan, Will and I went into town to support Alexa, our painter roommate, at the Wyland Gallery--and we may have checked out some fancy hats at the new Chapel Hat store on Front Street.

   

{my Kentucky Derby look}

{Will going for the Wild Thing look}

We got more rain over the weekend.  The weather chased poor T-Bone up to our porch where he stayed tucked under the eaves to stay dry.

{He's looking pretty unhappy about the whole ordeal.  He's also absolutely terrified of the wind.  It makes for very entertaining moments up at the house.}

I took a few minutes in my afternoon before work one day to apply this super amazing Fresh Face Mask from Lush.

{Oatifix from Lush.  It looks like someone threw up on your face, but it's so worth the smoothing, soothing after effects.}

Shaina and I made the big trek to the other side of the island today to hit up Wailea for lunch and shopping.

We had an epic lunch at the only place I have ever eaten in Wailea: Monkeypod Kitchen.

We got the pumpkin raviolis to start, the Portuguese bean soup to share and then I wolfed down this Seared Ahi Tuna Melt.

As much as I wanted to murder a piece of cream pie for dessert, there was no room.

After a long, epic day of shopping with Shaina, I made it home just in time to catch the tail end of a killer sunset from my lanai.

Unimpressed with the sunset, T-Bone did some yoga on the lanai instead.

{T-Bone in Downward Dog.  How appropriate.  Yup, those are my toes.  And my trusty Reef flip flops that I purchased specifically for my Maui move before I left Portland three years ago.}

{T-Bone chasing his tail.  Actually, he's going in to take care of a scratch--but the poetry of T-Bone in motion cannot be missed.}

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First Week of November

A few snapshots of the first week of November...

When I was on the other side shopping for the last odds and ends for my Han Solo Halloween costume, I picked up a comic book tee in the men's department at Old Navy.  I took it home and cut it up:

{kitchen selfie--our apartment has so many random mirrors}

The day after Halloween, Bryan and I got lunch at Longhi's.  I had been dying for some of their delish pasta bolognese.  While we were waiting for our food to come down from the kitchen, we snacked on their signature pizza bread and got seduced into ordering mimosas.  Longhi's makes the best mimosas with freshly squeezed orange juice.  Our bartender hooked us up and gave us monster drinks in wine glasses instead of champagne flutes.  It's good to be a repeat customer.

{monster mimosas}

I went to the amazing Doctors on Call at the Hyatt on Sunday to refill prescriptions.  My doctor has an interesting collection of monkeys pinned to his wall:

My housemate Alexa hooked me up with homemade borscht (aka beet soup).  I had some with some organic arugula tossed on top.

{eating colorful, eating clean}

Yesterday on my day off, I did an afternoon solo snorkel sesh at my favorite beach.  It had been awhile since I've been in the water, and it was nice to spy on all my fishy friends again.  I ran into a small honu (turtle) and a spotted eagle ray too.  Epic.

When I was done swimming, I got out and let the sun dry the salt water off me while I finished reading my book.

When I came home from the beach, the most handsome hound dog was waiting for me with his stuffed bunny.

{he's so happy, his tail is a blur--how awesome is that?}

My girlfriend Shaina and I went out for lunch this afternoon at one of my favorite spots, Pineapple Grill.

I got the corned beef brisket sandwich:

And the pineapple upside down cake for dessert:

It's a perfect overcast day, so I'm going to snuggle up with my new book: The Keep by Jennifer Egan.  How's your week been so far?

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I've Got a Hound Doggie

I met up with friends to watch Will play a show at Cool Cat Cafe last night.  At the end of his set, Will played one of his originals...a little ditty about his hound dog, T-Bone.

It's one of my favorites, and I decided to film it from my phone so I could share it with all of you.  Enjoy!

And a few photos of the dog in question:

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Lazy Day Off

It's been a while since I've posted a T-Bone sighting.  He still snoozes on our lanai when it's still shady during the day, but he's been spending most of his time hiding down in the pit that runs alongside the back of the yard (where those wayward kittens from many months back were hunkered down in).  In fact, that's where he spent most of the Flossie storm.  Will said that T-Bone was not at all interested in staying inside during the storm.  What a weirdo.

I got an early start and made it to Choice Health Bar for a freshly squeezed juice (carrots, beet, ginger, cucumber!) before heading up north for a swim sesh with a friend.

I was aiming for my old favorite, Kapalua Bay--but the parking was overflowing.  We continued forward to Cliffhouse--a swimming spot I still haven't explored, but the wind was too crazy to consider jumping in safely.  So we backtracked to Napili Bay--and it was absolutely perfect.

Gorgeous turquoise waters with maximum visibility and lots of fishy friends under the water.

{rocking my new Ola Feroz bikini bottoms}

{everyone's out at the bay today!}

On our way home from the beach, I stopped at the Honokowai Farmer's Market and picked up a mock chicken salad wrap for lunch and brussels sprouts and pasta sauce for dinner tonight.

Now, I'm about to get offline and wait out this heat wave reading a new book.

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Instagramage

I've been missing in action from the blog!  So sorry about that.  It's not as if a lot has been going on...and that probably explains my absence. I haven't been up to too many adventures, but here are a few snapshots from my Instagram feed to show you the day to day stuff that I've been up to lately.

I made this amazing Butternut Squash Lasagna, using a squash and sage that came in our Kula Fields delivery box.  I'm loving our home delivery of locally grown fruits and veggies that we get every two weeks.

Some T-Bone loving.

My first ripe cherry tomato from my plants!  It was delicious!

And a sunset from work.  You know that a sunset is good at the restaurant when employees rush out with their phones to grab a picture.  Technically, cell phones are not allowed on the floor during work, but our managers tend to turn a blind eye when the sunset is this gorgeous.

I hope you are all having a great day!

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Adventures with a Redbone Coonhound

Living above our good friends, Will and Ashley, packs a double whammy punch of being able to be neighbors with people we already know and like, and also, having a pseudo-pet.  If you are a loyal reader of the blog, you are most likely already familiar with T-Bone--the Redbone Coonhound that belongs to them.  T-Bone spends most of his afternoon snoozing upstairs on our porch, which is exactly what he is doing right this second.

Before he took his current prone position, he was sitting in front of our living room screen door looking in at me and Bryan eating lunch.  The poor guy could barely keep his eyes open.  He blinked heavily at us a few times before he gave up completely.  His eyes shut in finality and he dropped his head down onto the deck.

I'm always amused by how T-Bone lets gravity reach up, grab him and haul him down with a bang.  I can't believe he just flops his body around our deck like he is a big, heavy bag of bones.

I've grown accustomed and quite fond of having T-Bone's hulking sleeping form on our porch.  He's less of an obstacle and a decoration and more of a constant talking piece.  I talk about him and to him constantly.  He barely lifts an ear in response.

I'm used to this by now.

So, it caught all of our attention when instead of sleeping the other day, T-Bone spent his afternoon in the sun roaming the cement pit that lines the backyard under our coconut tree.  The pit is mostly filled with dead palm fronds left from the guys that trimmed our coconut tree over a month ago.  T-Bone was stepping down into the pit and rummaging around with purpose.  And every so often he would punctuate his search with a yawping bark.

Will and I were talking story upstairs in my apartment when I couldn't quell my curiosity any longer.  Even Will noted that this was the most fun that T-Bone has had in the backyard since they had moved in two years ago.

As Will and I climbed down the stairs, T-Bone spotted us and instantly lit up like a firework.  He was running in circles like a puppy, and his tail was wagging like a whip.  When T-Bone saw Will grab a long, bamboo pole, he became even more enthusiastic.  It's as if T-Bone knew that we had decided to join him on his hunting expedition.

T-Bone climbed back down into the pit, and Will and I stayed perched above it balancing on the edge.  Will sunk the bamboo pole deep into the layers of dead palm fronds, and from deep within the pit, something moaned back at us.

At first, I thought it was the distant sound of a dying moped crawling up the street, but then we heard the sound again when Will dug down into the fronds.

Upon poking into the pit for a third time, a scrawny white cat with orange patches erupted from the brush with such ferocity and speed that both Will and I screamed like little girls.  I'm surprised we didn't end up clutching each other in horror like they do in cartoons.

The skinny cat literally ran up a cinderblock wall and disappeared behind it in a flash as fast as lightning.  

After it was gone, Will and I immediately started laughing at how close we had both come to dying from fear.

We put the bamboo pole back and came back upstairs to chat.  T-Bone continued to nose around the pit.  As Will and I were talking, we realized that the cat that came out of the pit was probably down there nursing kittens.  We talked about it for a little bit more before we decided to come back down to the pit to investigate further.  Will grabbed the pole again, and we dug around and found some dewy eyed, super fluffy and of course, ridiculously adorable kittens staring back up at us.

We left them as they were, put T-Bone in the house and hoped that Mama Cat would come back and hopefully move them someplace else.

That was a week ago, and the cats must still be there because every few days T-Bone goes down to the pit, stares down mournfully and howls over and over again lest we forget that "Hey, guys!  There are cats down there!!"

I had the night off from work yesterday, and I spent most of it indoors getting over this nasty cold that's flying around the restaurant like one of the Wicked Witch's pet monkeys.  It would have been a fairly peaceful evening in except T-Bone was going bonkers over the goddamn cats.  He was barking so much that his voice was going hoarse.

There was absolutely no way to console the big guy.  We tried talking him down.  We brought him upstairs to hang out on the porch.  We petted him.  We talked soothingly to him.  Nothing.  T-Bone just looked at us as if to say, "Hey, guys.  Have you heard me talk about the cats?"  Then he would wander back down to the yard to bark at them in case we hadn't heard that he found cats down there.

Eventually, we just had to put him inside his house.

Peace and quiet.

When I woke up this morning, I had hoped the cats had been forgotten, but as I went downstairs with my laundry basket, I saw T-Bone hunched precariously over the pit, his forehead furrowed in worry as he continued his hunt for cats.

But there has been no barking.  A marked improvement.

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Something Tells Me...

Something tells me that I'm not getting my beach towel back anytime soon.

And when I do, it'll most likely be covered in T-Bone slobber.  Ew.

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I'm a Stalker

Actually, I don't know if I can categorize my obsession of T-Bone as stalking since he's the one traipsing around our lanai and plonking himself down in front of our door.

I think he loves the attention.  What a diva.

{there's that black pedicure sneaking into the photo again!}

{paws}

{streeeeetch!}

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100 Wines

My girlfriend and I took advantage of our joint night out, and we went out to dinner to one of our favorite haunts: 100 Wines.

The restaurant is over at Lahaina Gateway, attached to the fondue chain Melting Pot.  

The interior evokes an Old World European bistro or tavern.  There is a glass walled wine room directly behind the host stand as you first enter the restaurant, and then as you are led into 100 Wines, you walk past two huge wood tables stacked with wine bottles.

The restaurant wants to encourage guests to choose their wine not just by perusing the wine list, but by going over and examining the bottles themselves.  They want you to pick a bottle up, look over the label and see what calls out to you.

We chose the Palmina, a Dolcetto from Santa Barbara, California.

It was delicious, and I look forward to ordering it again.

100 Wines specializes not only in their wide selection of wines from all over the world, but also their array of tapas.  

One of the more popular items to order (and one of my favorites as well) is the Brussels Sprouts served with prosciutto and a balsamic glaze.

We went off-book this visit, and instead of ordering our old favorites (buh-bye Brussels Sprouts!), we ordered a whole bunch of new things.  We started off with the Creamy Polenta (which is different day to day based on the chef's whim) done with Chicken and Pumpkin.  We also ordered two tartines (open-faced sandwiches): the Croque Madame (topped with a fried egg) and the Provencale (prosciutto, goat cheese with honey).

And of course, we got dessert: the Menage a Trois--ice cream served on a peanut dust (crushed peanuts rolled with sugar), caramelized bananas, and a pot of S'mores (Nutella layered with graham crackers and toasted marshmallows).

I know that you are disappointed there are no photos of the food, but everything came out looking too good that I had absolutely zero will power to pause before eating to take pictures.  I hope you all forgive me.

Let me offer a photo of a forlorn T-Bone as an apology: 

Adorable.

It's been a fun weekend, and I'm loathe to go back to work tonight.  Thankfully, I've got a few hours before I have to go in, and Bryan and I are heading out for Mexican food.  Maybe I'll take a few photos there...

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Sweet Saturdays

Today couldn't have possibly been any sweeter.

I made homemade guacamole with homegrown cilantro, all chopped up in my new hand blender.

I used the guacamole for our brunch today.  I layered it onto toast, then topped it all off with scrambled eggs, salsa, sprouts and nonfat Greek yogurt as a sour cream substitute.

Not a bad way to start the morning.

Oh yeah, and I did laundry and did my workout.  I felt pretty productive.

I also got to hang out with my favorite neighbor:

He didn't do too much, but his company still made me happy.

The only way that this day could have been any better would be if I didn't have to work.

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Best Buds

I captured this moment between T-Bone and Bryan through the screen door.

T-Bone looks so loved.

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T-Bone

One of the best things about our new apartment?  Our new (pseudo) pet, T-Bone:

He officially belongs to our downstairs neighbors Will and Ashley, but T-Bone enjoys coming upstairs and crashing on the porch to enjoy the breeze.

With a face like that, it's hard to refuse him.

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