Weekend Recap (as of Monday morning)

Friday night, LW went out with the wardroom wives for a ladies' night out. The boys and I had a Banditos night. We watched The Three Amigos and had dinner at a nearby Mexican restaurant called Banditos. After I got the boys in bed, one of the guys whose wife was out with my wife stopped by to play some Halo 3. We "met up" with the CO via the internet for some online carnage (see previous post on obsession with things that go bang).

Apparently, something I had at Banditos for dinner had MSG in it, because I woke up Saturday morning with a raging migraine headache. It was a two-Imitrex morning. Normally one tablet does the trick if I take it BEFORE the onset of the headache. I still wasn't feeling 100% when I dragged myself out of bed, got ready, and headed off to the airport.

Saturday, my old friend Yoshi and his wife Miwa arrived on the island for their 20th Anniversary vacation. Yoshi was a Japanese exchange student who first stayed with my family when I was about 5 years old. He came back about once a year for several years after that to visit us in California and go surfing (until he graduated and had to get a real job and be a productive member of society). I got to visit Yoshi in Japan in 1979 and 1987. Then in 2002, I had a port call in Okinawa, and Yoshi flew down to visit me on my 30th birthday. That was the first time I had seen him in 15 years. Yesterday I finally got to meet Miwa for the first time. I drove them to their hotel and left them with my car as a loaner.

LW and the boys met us at the hotel to have some lunch. There's a really cool little pond with bat rays, hammerhead sharks, black-tipped reef sharks, and tropical fish. We got a table right by the water, so the boys both turned their chairs around and watched the sharks and fish swimming around while we ate.








Saturday night, my CO brought back a day-bed he had borrowed. No sooner did he arrive in front of our house, then my boys attacked him with light-sabers. Luckily, my CO was not offended by this gesture, and he quickly picked up a lightsaber and fought back with one of his evil AH-ha-ha-ha-ha laughs.








Sunday after church, Yoshi and Miwa met us at Haleiwa Joe's in Kaneohe for brunch, and we walked through the Haiku gardens afterward. Yoshi and Miwa gave the boys these really cool little remote-control R2-D2 robots. The remote control looks like a light-saber. Since they're both obsessed with all things Star Wars, these gifts were a BIG hit with them.

Yoshi also brought a bunch of old photos from his trips to California in the 70's and 80's. LW thought that was pretty funny seeing pictures of me that looked a lot like ES. When Yoshi and Miwa come over for dinner on Tuesday night, I hope to scan some of his old pictures and I'll post some here. (Check back for updates).

I tried taking Yoshi to see the Pali overlook, but I found out the hard way that when you make a wrong turn in Kaneohe, you can end up on a highway going up and over to the other side of the island without anyplace to turn around until you get to Honolulu.

Sunday night we had the MSG Party at my CO's house. It turned out really well. LW made Macho Summer Gazpacho (from a Rachel Ray recipe) and Mushrooms Sauteed in Garlic. The CO made his Mai-Tais Served in Glasses. One of the JO's brought Mark's San Gria. There was Macaroni in Saucy (cheese) Gravy (a.k.a. Macaroni and Cheese). There was Minneapolis Salad (Gellatin) (jello salad). Then there were a few things that fell under the "Many Special Grubs" generic label like chicken and artichoke pizza and beer bread. Oh, the Eng's wife made a cake that was absolutely to die for. It was like a chocolate cake infused with caramel. She called it "MSP Sexy Goodness," and then felt embarrassed and apologized to the CO for saying the word "sexy" in front of the his 12-year old daughter.

I was pretty impressed that the kids stayed mostly inside playing Lego Star Wars, watching movies, etc, while the adults were able to sit out in the back yard eating, drinking, and talking. The CO made a very interesting observation in light of my post about things that go bang. He has three kids - two girls and the youngest is a boy about the same age as YS. In spite of NOT having "shooting" actions or noises modeled for him by his older sisters, he still makes the same shooting noises that ES and YS do. It really must be something hardwired in the male brain.

As for our holiday today, LW and I have been doing yard work and small projects around the house so far. Not sure what else is in store for us yet today. I'll update this later - hopefully with scanned pictures from Yoshi.