You know you've had a good day when you do the hara kiri motions.



And I really need to stop eating sandwiches shaped like ribs.

---------------------

Can somebody explain to me why an 8" pan costs $20 while it's 10" counterpart costs $50? Maybe it's just me, but we're talking a 16/25 ratio in terms of area, and maybe an 8/10 ratio on the edges. Yes, these are the bitter ramblings of a man who waited too long to purchase a wedding gift.

This summer, I was invited to three weddings and in each of the invitations, it was denoted that I was not permitted to bring a date. Basically, "We will reserve ___1__ of ___1___ seat for you." I was tempted to send back the invitation, with the original "1" crossed out while just rewriting "1". You know, at least it's on my own terms right?

Debating what to do for the Vegas wedding. I was thinking of flying in cheap Saturday morning, going to the wedding/reception, and either find some hijinx or play poker for the remainder of the night.....ie, no need to rent a room. And then I'd fly back Sunday morning.

Downside to that plan would be being ready to conk out at 3am and having no place to go. That or meeting some random gal and not having a place to go bac....I almost typed that with a straight face.

----------------------

Congrats to Steph on poppin' out kid #2. Although Mattias isn't a power forward's name.

---------------------

Was in a weird mood on Friday. My usual rotation of hard rock wasn't doing it for me, so I ended up listening to a myriad of things including The Pussycat Dolls, Ice Cube, and Richard Marx. And then I started to recall this old Richard Marx music video which pissed the hell out of me as a little kid. Basically he wins the World Series by hitting a walk off home run in the 9th inning of game 7. So I thought to myself, "I wonder if YouTube has it." Sure enough:



After watching this video again, here are the things that still piss me off:

Mullet + batting helmet = no good.

The grunt of the pitcher seems to be lifted off of Ricky Vaughn's grunt from Major League

Eckersley wouldn't throw him an 0-2 fastball.

It's at Oakland Coliseum, yet it's somehow a walkoff home run for the visiting team

BABY. THIS TIME. THERE AIN'T NOTHING GONNA TAKE THIS HEART AWAY. NO MORE. GOOD BYES. THERE AIN'T NOTHING GONNA TAKE MY HEART AWAY. Dammit, it's in my head again.



Apologies to Deb, most of this will be poker related and/or less compelling than the turtle video.

So I had absolutely positively nothing going on Friday night. I get home, and Kurt invites me to go to Barona. My immediate response: "God dammit [yes, I'll go]." I had been avoiding popping my Indian Casino Poker cherry since I figured I might enjoy it and make subsequent trips.

Ended up playing at the kiddie game ($1/$2 nl, $50 max buy-in). Was completely card dead for the first 90 minutes or so, $50 stack gradually dwindled down to $25. Tripled up with Q-Q where I preflop raised in late position to $10 and got a couple callers. Flop came 10 high and I push my remaining chips. Both players casually call. Turn is another 10, and I'm ready to get up and say good bye to Indian Casinos for good. The other two players check down and show just absolutely miserable cards. The guy to my left asks "You raised that preflop pretty hard right? [I nod] What the fuck where those guys doing?"

After that, I gradually pissed away chips. Was getting frustated, limped in with junk like Q-10 and then felt like I had odds to call the obligatory raise. Lost a decent chunk when a guy spiked a gutshot on the river which topped the trips that I had made on the turn. So I had $29 left [five $5 chips, four $1 chips]. Mentally I was yelling "Please, just give me aces and make it easy for me to push." Under the gun, I pick up aces.

So I raise it to $4 [the four $1 chips that I was shuffling in my right hand] and immediately realize "Oh crap, that's not a substantial enough raise to make marginal hands fold" as I watch the next three players insta-call. Thankfully this woman in middle position pumps it up to $15. One guy calls before it gets around for me to go all-in. She ends up going all-in for about $40 total which gets called. I turn over my hand, she has Q-Q, and the other guy has A-K offsuit. And I flop a set and river a full house. Ding ding.

Didn't play much else after that, but at least I wasn't pressing to break even anymore. Got a guy to move all-in with $40 with A-J offsuit against my aces. I really enjoy being a 93% favorite. Other than that, I don't remember being involved with too many hands. Only showed down that one losing hand in 3+ hours of play, and ended up making enough money to basically balance what I lost at our weekly home game.

Bad thing is that I could see myself going back, albeit probably still relegated to the kiddie game.

----------------------

Quote(s):

[me eating a rice dish with a fork]
"Even my 4 year old daughter can use chop sticks, and she's white." -- Bob

83773935: yeah, then a black guy sat down
83773935: was proud to say he took his girls welfare money to come here and double up



Telepathxx: http://img456.imageshack.us/img456/6116/team4uc.jpg
Telepathxx: i love that picture
Telepathxx: i keep thinking nes ice hockey
Telepathxx: except for hs chicks

Being in San Diego has made me soft in terms of hot temperatures. Then again, I don't know many people used to 105 degree heat. And thus was the prevailing memory of the weekend roadtrip.

(Clerks II was excellent. "Even the fucking trees walked.")



Drove up to Orange County on Saturday morning for my niece's first birthday party. I spent infinitely more time with the kid than my brother-in-law did. Seemingly, the party was more of a forum to show off his newly restored 1970s Mustang GT than about his only child's birthday. If I ever do something like that, feel free to shoot me with a crossbow.

Niece can sorta say "dog" now, although it sounds more like "daaaahhhh." Ended up getting her some Sesame Street bath toys which she seemed to enjoy later. Earlier in the week, my Dad called me from Wal-Mart asking which DVD he ought to get her: Lady and the Tramp or Aladdin. At this point, I have to be a smart ass and point out that a one year old kid wouldn't know the difference before recommending Aladdin. Also, I have forever associated Aladdin with Tostitos brand chips. When Tostitos first came onto the market coincided with when I saw Aladdin for the first time on VHS. So whenever anybody mentions Aladdin, I have a strange urge for nachos.

Had a friend's wedding to attend on Sunday in Burbank, so I decided to visit my cousin in the Valley and stay overnight. Ended up being DD and taking him and his friend to Dave and Buster's. Normally, I really dislike D&B but I had fun this time.....mostly because they have this multiplayer trivia game where the winner of each round gets at least 100 tickets. And I dominated. We pooled our tickets and ended up with around 3600......and we almost cashed it in for a rice cooker (3300 tickets).



Bad directions from Yahoo + my lack of inherent naviational skills = bad times

What should have been a simple 25-30 minute drive from West Hills to Burbank ended up being a 90 minute odyssey which caused me to be late to Maya's wedding. By the time I knew for sure that Yahoo had betrayed me, I ran directly into exiting Dodger Stadium traffic. Suffice to say, I was about ready to break something sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic. But once I got seated in the church, all the aggravation was lifted.

Most "How I met my spouse" stories are pretty boring, but I really like theirs. (with Dark Helmet voice) He was her ex-boyfriend's former college roommate. So while their engagement seemed sudden (they had only been dating for several months), they had known each other for many years. Basically he sees his roommate date his dream girl and not treat her as well as he would have. And then a couple years after the breakup, he seized his opportunity. I guess I'm just a sucker for a story where the guy has to wait a really long time to get the girl.

Had a fun conversation with a random person seated at my table. The bridal party entered the reception dinner to the song "Shout" with the DJ imploring the guests to cheer loudly. So this gal and I were debating which songs we'd use as entrance music. She tossed around some Metallica and GnR songs. I argued that (much like pro wrestling's theme music) that the opening riff of the song had to be strong ("Welcome to the Jungle") or else it wouldn't work ("November Rain"). At the moment, I might have to go with this song.

"I hate it when people are in the club and they dance exactly as the song asks them to." -- Jina

-----------------

After making fun of my Dad's inventory system to keep track of my CDs, I guess karma bit me in the ass as I went through my DVDs and I am missing at least five. The one that sticks out is I'm missing the entire Simpsons Fourth Season set. I have every other season....so I'm wondering if I maybe brought that back to Saugus and left it there or something. Odd.

Opened up one last box with old photos, letters, and other assorted junk. Here's one photo I completely forgot about, my "individual picture" from Winter Formal:



I also went through an old case of CDs and found one labeled "DT.com" as from when I used to have DonTran.com (apparently somebody bought that domain and has been frequenting this site on occasion). Found some old pictures on there as well:



Had been looking for this one awhile back.



From an old Visa commercial a few years ago. And here are a few banners from my old site:











And here are random quotes from crappy blog entries from college:

"You should have seen Don. He was so happy when he got his stupid [Patrik Elias] jersey." -- Chris

"She already has her Saved By The Bell gang going. When I hang out with them, I stick out like those random characters that show up, but don't have a prominent role....and just end up antagonizing the main characters." -- Me

"Don, I swear I found the perfect girl for you." -- Brad
"Does she have a boyfriend?" -- Armin
"I don't think she does." -- Brad
"Then she's not his type." -- Armin

"Random question, but would you go to Prom with my little sister?" -- Ning

"All I want [for Xmas] is for you kids to love me." -- Mom to me and my sister while watching TV
(awkward pause)
"Sorry, couldn't think of a sarcastic remark." -- Me
"Yah I was waiting for you to say something." -- Jade

"Got a Daewoo as my loaner car, it's a piece of shit." -- Lily
"What do you expect, it's Korean." -- Me

"Dude, Lily's cars a piece of shit." -- Ryan, Lily's coworker
"What do you expect, it's Korean." -- Me

Jinaxxxx: and shut up wabout the daewoo/korean thing
Jinaxxxx: at least korea makes cars

supahdon: cute gal friend from back home is coming down
supahdon: with 5 or 6 girl friends from her school
supahdon: 7 * P(Don scoring) = I like my chances
Swim4xxx: doesn't matter... 7 * 0 still equals 0

LORI KIM xxx: psh. but i make fun of koreans cuz i'm korean.
LORI KIM xxx: its different if u aint korean..
LORI KIM xxx: it sucks if ur not korean and u diss koreans

supahdon: yah, i messed up the code at work
djkittyxxx: that's because you are you
djkittyxxx: i mean new

supahdon: yee haw
supahdon: koreans eliminated [from World Cup 2002]
xxxJinah: i
xxxJinah: hate
xxxJinah: you
Immtblxxx: this is emily's away message:
Immtblxxx: "korean people are just bitter"
Immtblxxx: she's perfect for you

Sandxxx: dude
Sandxxx: girl in red dress at graduation.... = sister?
supahdon: you like my sis
supahdon: you're up her alley
supahdon: tall, white, rich.....rich.....

xx ibis: i must look like a dumbass to my uncle
supahdon: why's that
xx ibis: uc berkeley, honors, harvard, mba, harvard law, magna cum laude
supahdon: but he's still korean
xx ibis: yeah but i'm korean too
supahdon: i guess he does have you beat then

PenPenxxx: marriage is like communism. It looks great on paper but then reality strikes

"Well that's hockey, nobody expects you to be good at that. But you're Asian, so you should be good with electronics." -- Dean

"What you up to?" -- Me
"Watching Korean soap operas." -- Jina
"Sounds like fun." -- Me
"What? No Korean jokes? You were just with a cute girl weren't ya?" -- Jina

"So what do you think when a girl smiles at you?" -- Ching
(couple seconds of hesitation)
"She's laughing at me?" -- Me

Piyoxx: Fon is Chinese for annoying
supahdon: Taco is Spanish for taco

"Those are some ugly shoes." -- Me to Justin
"Hey, that's an ugly face you got, at least I can buy another pair of shoes." -- Justin

(standup comic pets my spiky hair)
"What the hell do you put on there?!?" -- Robert Kelly, who is now on Dane Cook's show Tourgasm

"This time last year, Brad didn't even have a girlfriend. And now he's married. And you're way better looking than he is." -- Shannon, Brad's wife

"Don's so funny and slant-eyed." -- Brad

BeaJayxx: did you really have to record the first 2/3 of the video where u walk to the sea turtle?
BeaJayxx: the only redeeming moment is when the turtle looks up out of the water at you

Thanks for the dozen or so people who had to point that out. Trust me, I was fully aware of the Blair Witch-esque excitement of the video while I was encoding it. Although when Mark was making fun of it during poker, I blurted out "you weren't in the demographic I was aiming for"......ie, pretty much every guy told me the video was retarded, whereas most gals noted that the turtle was cute.

----------------------

supahdon: did you watch pirates
Jinaxxxx: yeah, it was awful
supahdon: so i've heard
supahdon: i still kinda wanna watching it though
supahdon: $#$#@
supahdon: totally fobbified that verb

----------------------

Unfortunately I learned on the first morning in my new room that it gets rather bright. Went to bed at 4:30 on Saturday night, had the sun wake me up on Sunday morning........got out of bed expecting it to be noon and proceeded to read 7:30 on my clock. Unsuccessfully tried to go back to bed.

First couple days back at work were more or less a blur, as I was physically there but mentally dormant. Took a few more nights, but got a desk and got my room in order.

Slightly pissed because I had been planning on moving out before I had left for Hawaii--ie, before July started. But the room didn't open up until after I left, so I had asked Lily if it was cool if I left my stuff at her place for another week......she said no prob. So when I got back to SD, I saw that her ex-boyfriend (actual owner of the place) was there.....and immediately my first thought was that he was going to ask that I pay for the extra week. Sure enough, I get that phone call yesterday. On one hand, I understand why he would.....but as Jina pointed out, me not moving out didn't prevent anybody from moving in, and otherwise the extra week was just a favor. I was going to get them some sort of gift as a thank you for letting me stay the last year, but now........

----------------------

Once I got settled in on Wednesday, I finally cracked open "24" season one and proceeded to watch seven episodes. On Thursday, I jokingly said I would go home during lunch to watch an episode.....until I realized I had forgetten my lunch in the fridge, and thus I went home and watched another episode (finished eight episodes that day). Friday finished off five, and killed off the last four on Saturday night.

During the latest season, I had perused the Fark discussion boards about the show and inadvertantly stumbled upon a few spoilers. So that kinda ruined one of the major points of the last episode, but I probably would have guessed it anyways. I also enjoyed how Jack Bauer ends up investigating a lead in Saugus (Jina said that Santa Clarita has been mentioned in every season). They end up in the middle of an empty field and his partner yells out "There's nothing here!" Prompting me to say "Yup, that's about right for Saugus."

--------------------

"Don, you have a blog?" -- random hockey guy at Happy Hour
"Yeah, it's mostly him complaining about his parents." -- Dorothy

Stumbled upon some lost CDs while unpacking, which I added to my rotation in the car. Kurt made fun of the fact that several of these CDs had labels on them with my full name and my address back from Saugus. My explanation being that before I left for UCSD, my dad actually placed these labels on all of my CDs. To top that off, he actually took inventory after I finished my freshman year. My Dad also had UCSD send monthly reports about how I was allocating my meal points. If only he had been that concerned about my GPA.



Had a housewarming poker tournament on Saturday night. Totally forgot to buy an inflatable arm flailing tube man to put in front of the house. Pretty standard tournament (although if I had won, it would have been the greatest fucking tournament ever) as I finished exactly in the middle of a 24 entrant pack. Picked up a few hands early, but got blinded out by the third hour and moved in with K-10 suited which ran into pocket 10s.

Highlight of the tournament was Greg showing up 15 minutes late and then losing 90% of his chips in his first hand because he misread/forgot his cards. On the other hand, I am amazed that the other guy called the all-in bet. The other guy had pocket aces, but by the river, there's a potential straight on the board......the other guy has been raising the entire way.

Also amusing was Frankie from Brooklyn, who asked if it was okay to order the Mosley/Vargas fight. He then almost lost on purpose just so he could watch. Since he was getting up every 30 seconds to check the TV, almost everybody at the table thought he had a junky starting hand, so anybody with a decent hand was going to call. Once somebody called with (I think) A-Q, Frankie turns over Jacks to everybody's surprise. He doesn't even bother watching the hand finish and resumes his spot on the couch.

Nothing in the house was stolen or broken, so I was happy with the evening.



(walking by some coworkers)
"Oh man, that reminds me of those robots on Battlestar Galactica. You know, with the lights......" -- Nerdy guy pointing to his eyes
"I can't remember what those were called." -- Nerdy guy
"I'm embarrassed to jump into this conversation, but they were called Cylons." -- me, without breaking stride
"Ah, I knew there was somebody nerdier than me." -- Nerdy guy



Went to the Foo Fighters acoustic show which was my first concert since Bad Religion in 2002. Decent mix of the obligatory new material, obscure old songs, and the hits. Dave Grohl explained that his initial ambition was to do a tour where they'd have the standard arena "Rock and Roll" show on Friday night and a smaller acoustic show on Saturday night. But it never came to fruition, so instead they did separate tours, and they're only doing like eight acoustic shows I think. His stage banter was probably the highlight of the evening, nuggets such as:

[discussion with the violinist leads to them talking about the Muppets]
"We should have totally gotten those two guys from the Muppet Show and put them in the balcony, so they could tell us how much we suck. Nah, probably not enough room in the budget for that."

[explanation of the song "Skin and Bones"]
"In 6th grade P.E., you know, you have to wear those shorts. And this guy comes up to me and is like 'Dude, you have the skinniest legs ever.' Yeah. That totally fucked me up for 30 years."

[talking about before he joined Nirvana]
"So yeah, I was laying fucking tile in Costa Mesa and I decided that's not what I wanted to do."

[crowd screaming song requests]
"No, no, we can't do that. That's a song for the Rock and Roll show. You need like lasers and shit."

[giving his Mom credit for telling him to join a new band named Nirvana]
"Hey Mom, take a bow." -- older woman in the third row stands up and takes a bow

"You might notice that they're twice as many Foo Fighters as normal."

So they are touring with the piano player from The Wallflowers, violinist Petra Haden, and former member Pat Smear as the third guitar player. Suffice to say, Pat Smear was creepy as hell live in person. Apparently he's 46, and he just doesn't look human. And he wasn't playing guitar half the time, he'd just be on stage like "Sweet, I'm just sitting here."

The band "finished" the set although the entire crowd didn't budge knowing that they hadn't heard "Everlong" yet. And expectedly, Grohl makes his way back to the stage and plays three more songs with "Everlong" being the finale. Here's a link for the performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVDaC_ZnD78&search=

Hrm, just got back home after reaffirming the fact that I still cannot navigate through downtown. Will post something new mañana. Until then, here is a video that doesn't involve me walking around for three minutes:

It's 4:00am on Sunday morning and I'm unfortunately still on Hawaii time (3 hour difference). Also sitting here in my new room, as I got home at 1:30am Saturday morning and managed to get completely moved out by 8pm Saturday night. With the two week vacation and new room, I have a strange sense something akin to a clean slate.....something I haven't really felt in a couple years. Anyways, here is the obligatory vacation synopsis (pics denoted with a '+' can be enlarged):



Monday (6.26)

Flight over to Oahu was uneventful, but I was stuck at the Maui airport for a three hour layover. Just the perfect amount of time to bore the hell out of me while not giving me enough time to go explore the island.

Didn't do much the first night after meeting up with the parents. After settling in our hotel, we headed out to dinner. In typical fashion, my parents chose to eat steak and lobster at a restaurant we went during our last trip three years ago. But at least we didn't have pho.....

Tuesday (6.27)

......and we had pho for lunch. Guh. And it wasn't particularly good. And it cost $10 a bowl. At least we didn't go to Chinatown for it.



Thankfully, Sarah took off work early and drove me around the area. Went up to Tantalus point which has a great view of Waikiki, while also providing me with this accidental photo:



Whatchu gonna do with all that junk, all that junk?



Had dinner with Sarah and her sister at The Ocean Club. 16 ounce prime rib + ocean view + pleasurable company = good times. After catching dessert at the Cheesecake Factory and walking on the beach, I headed back to the room, and my dad said I wasted my money spending that much on food. Naturally, he then informed me that they ate at the same place and ordered the same dinner.

Wednesday (6.28)

Woke up, turned on the TV while waiting for the shower to open up and "Saved by the Bell" was on TBS. It was the classic "Fake IDs/Kelly gets cheated on by Jeff" episode.

Headed out for the beach, but caught lunch in the International Market. Got a huge plate lunch from Yummy's Korean BBQ, while my parents got.........some more pho. Afterwards, just relaxed on the beach.



On a side note, there weren't a lot of attractive people in Waikiki. Mostly because 80% of the women are Japanese, and I'm apparently not down with the anorexic look. Wanted to give a few of them a dollar for a Jumbo Jack.

Speaking of eating unhealthy, my parents chose to eat at Perry Smorgy's buffet which met their criteria: Cheap, nearby, cheap. I had a pre-emptive stomach ache, that's how bad it was.

Thursday (6.29)



Spent the first half of the day driving the perimeter of the south side of Oahu. Off one of the lookout points is this beautiful rocky shoreline which was a pretty easy hike. On the way back up, I jumped the ~3 foot wall back into the parking lot.....and about two seconds later, I hear a thud. Yup, my dad totally ate it. I suppose I should have helped him back up.



Met up with Sarah on the southeast side of Oahu and went on a tour of her lab facility on Coconut Island. The research focused on marine biology, so there were various animals on site--notably a few sharks and dolphins (didn't get to see the latter). But did see these funky chickens:



We had dinner at some Greek place which took forever--well, 35 minutes--to cook our meal. Parents went to Chinatown, and had pho.

Friday (6.30)

Woke up, turned on the TV, and yup.......the Johnny Dakota episode of "Saved by the Bell" was playing.

Spent the morning walking around Honolulu with the parents. Stopped by the Hard Rock Cafe to pickup a shirt and then my dad had to go Japanese tourist on me.



It took five days, but I cracked. We were walking aimlessly around Waikiki looking for a place to eat, and my parents decided to go to the same restaurant one more time. So in eight meals, they had eaten: Seaside Grille (x3), Pho (x3), Taco Bell (x1), crappy buffet (x1). I tried my best to convince them to try something different, which led them to go on a rant about spending $40 on meals. So I stormed off and had burger/fries at Duke's on the beach.



Unfortunately this occurred around 2pm, and we went on a cruise which served dinner at 5:30. Wasn't the least bit hungry, and our meal just might have been catered by Perry Smorgy. So naturally I got yelled at for not eating. Got a headache while in the cabin of the ship; At first I was worried that I had gotten seasick, but I ended up feeling nausea because of the crappy plate of food in front of my face. Went up on the top deck of ship and enjoyed a peaceful half hour by myself.

Saturday (7.1)

Sadly, July 1st means one thing even if I'm on vacation: NHL Free Agency. Mostly was worried about Patrik Elias and whether or not he was going to re-sign with the Devils. Woke up, turned on ESPN, and the bottom line scrolled: "The New Jersey Devils re-sign.........RW Jamie Langenbrunner to a 5 year deal." You know on Christmas when you're expecting a really awesome gift, but end up opening a sorta cool gift.....which feels like a crappy gift in comparison to what you were hoping for? Yeah, that's Langenbrunner compared to Elias.



Met up with Sarah one last time and went hiking. I was completely unprepared for this activity because I had only brought sandals and a pair of dress shoes. Could have been worse, although I had a couple near falls with some slippery rocks. Tried to go hike Diamond Head, but they closed fifteen minutes before we got there, so we decided to take it easy and watch Superman Returns. After the movie, I checked my phone and I had a missed call from Kurt. I tell Sarah that the missed call was gonna be either really good news, or really bad news. Subsequently informed that the Devils signed Elias to a 7 (!) year contract.

Sunday (7.2)

Another travel day as we flew from Oahu to the Big Island. Drove over to a beach front house in Kona that we were sharing with my sister:



The rest of the vacation would be glorified babysitting, but at least my parents could focus their attention on the kid while I could relax.

Monday (7.3)

Slept in while everybody else went to Costco. Somehow they managed to ring up a $500 bill, apparently disregarding the fact that we were leaving early Friday. This reminded me of a portion of John Stossel's new book, where he explains that most people don't save any money by shopping at warehouse stores. Ie, why buy two cartons of milk when you know you won't finish one before it expires? Oh well, if whoever has this place after us wants some Shredded Wheat.....or what remains of our 36 bottles of Corona, they lucked out.



Met up with my sister's friends in Hapuna Beach. Took the munchin out to the water and caught a few more rays. Probably the nicest beach on the trip thus far, sparesly populated, mild temperature, and decent looking people--noticeably different demographic of tourists.

Tuesday (7.4)



And this was the most painful day of the trip. Parents were going to drive the perimeter of the entire island and for some reason, I agreed to go. Left at 11am. Didn't get back until 7pm. Main attraction of the trip was stopping near the active volcanos.......but naturally my parents had zero interest in hiking down and getting near lava.....nope, they just stopped and took a quadrillion boring photos of them and rocks.

Once we got around to the Hilo side of the island, as three inches of rain hit the area that day. But that led to another argument, as my dad was driving while trying to eat a sandwich. I offered to drive, but he said that I couldn't per the rental agreement. Safety < Angering the Car Rental Gods

Also got in a weird argument:

"Are you going to hike the volcano [with my sister and her friends] tomorrow?" -- Mom
"I don't know. After this car ride, I'm probably not gonna be real anxious to do another six hours of driving tomorrow." -- me
"Well, if you want to change your flight and go home, then go ahead and do it!" -- Mom, angrily overanalyzing what I said
(silence)
"What are you talking about?" -- me
"You said that you don't want to be here anymore."
"No, I just said I didn't particularly enjoy spending most of my day inside a car."

Gotta love family moments like that.

Wednesday (7.5)

Had a series of weird dreams: In the first one, I was framed for murdering a fireman. Later I'm driving in my car, then get sideswiped by a firetruck and end up in a gruesome accident. A few firemen are standing over me and tell me to bleed to death. Later, I'm in the hospital and they find the real killer....and the firemen stop by and are like "Uh, yeah, sorry 'bout that." Woke up, went back to sleep, and continued on a completely different dream where an old love interest showed up. Not sure about you, but I find the second dream to be far more disturbing.

After my sister's friends dropped out of the volcano hike, I didn't want to be a third wheel to her and her husband. Well.....mostly because I didn't envision having a good time with them. And the next day, I found out that they didn't get anywhere close to finishing the hike. They wanted to see the lava at night, which required them to do the hike in pitch black darkness and my sister twisted her ankle en route.



So babysitting duties it was. Got out of the house for an hour to go buy some souvenirs--another Hard Rock shirt, and some Donkey Balls. Grabbed takeout at Don's Chinese Kitchen......and Don failed me. Who puts cabbage in their fried rice?

Thursday (7.6)



By far the best day of the Big Island portion of the trip. We headed to the Four Seasons Resort for lunch (and I had to survive an awkward car ride with my sister/brother-in-law, who apparently had gotten in an argument the previous night during the hike).

Had my best meal of the week there (a simple Bento Box), while snacking on weird looking potato chips:



They may look like pork rinds, but I assure you, it was potatoes. And we got our best photos of the kid being playful:



Later on, we met up with my sister's friends back at our house. Sadly, it took us four days to venture around the beach area in our backyard and we found a shallow pool encircled by lava rocks.



And what else could be found in that area? Giant sea turtles....and here's my first lame YouTube video: