Monthly Archive for November, 2013

Fort Ruger Pathway

Today, Saturday, I lounged around all beginning of the day, the forecast earlier had called for dire rains, which only so far showed up as showers last night, and Kona winds today. Finally the bug in my brain to go ride my bike took hold. I needed to go buy some more of that gold Plastidip, and Dad needed some weed trimmer line, so I decided I’ll go ride to the Ace Hardware in Kaimuki. It was past 3PM but I figured I could be back within two hours so I pulled out the metallic rootbeer Santa Cruze. It kinda got pushed off to the side with the arrival of the Yeti, but it made a good cross country cruiser with the lighter weight and the layback sesatpost fixed the riding position. Continue reading ‘Fort Ruger Pathway’

Ame

Of course it rains when the weekend arrives.

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Bling

A by product of working on Ckucky’s Taco, I discovered that the Ace Hardware in Kaimuki carries a pretty good selection of Plastidip products, including the colorizers. They didn’t have the new copper metalizer, so I picked up a can of the gold to play with. If you look almost a year back when I got the FR-S, one of the first things I did was try out the black spray Plastidip  on my rims. Made them look a lot better. Been thinking about doing the metalizer color since then, but no one brought those spray cans in, and no one wants to ship them to Hawaii. Finally get a chance. Debated what to do about the original coat of black, should I remove and start all over? The original coat actually still looks pretty good, so I decided to do what J suggested and lay down a new layer of black on the existing, and then go for it. Continue reading ‘Bling’

Beer Is Good – Franziskaner Weissbier

Not a beer we arte new to, but never reviewed for B.I.G. and they had it in a sixer at Foodland. Pours a cloudy yellow with strong head that lasts. Pleasant floral with some citrus acid with a bit of lingering bitter. There’s a medium heavy mouthfeel, but the citrusness contrasts that and keeps it clean. It’s like a Hoegarten without the strong spice, which isn’t surprising since they’re both Weissbiers, whites. I really like this beer.

4 out 4 wheaty monkeys.

Dojjiko

Man, my hands are looking like the anime trope of the dojjiko girl after cooking her first dinner for the dude. I cut my left thumb pretty good washing dishes a few days ago. A sake/shot glass tipped over in the sink. It looked fine but when I started scrubbing it I felt a odd sensation in my left hand, and then the glass split in two. It then stung and started bleeding. Flooded it with povidone iodine and washed it out then applied a pad with pressure. It’s actually closed up quite fast, I don’t really need all that dressing you see in the pic, but I was up in the ceiling of Ala Moana food court pulling cable today so that with nitrile gloves was more than a good idea. My right hand I did today loading the trunk for afore mentioned cable pull. Jammed my finger strait into a sheet metal edge in the trunk if the FR-S, partially split the nail. Good thing I brought along two gloves!

Beer Is Good – Samuel Adams Winter Lager

Pours a medium dark clear amber leaning toward red, heavy head. Fairly strong hop and bitter hit. Faintest hint of nuttiness, the bitter lingers on for a long time at the back of your mouth. There’s a medium heavy mouthfeel. Whatever spices they’ve used, it is very subtle to the point that I can’t tell. Really I find this beer lacking in much character. While not terrible, I won’t be seeking this one out again.

Ah, there’s the spice. As I got to the last sips and the beer had warmed, the spice comes out in the aroma. Maybe you have to let this beer warm up a bit?

2.5 out of 4 seasonal monkeys.

There Can Be Only One

11/11/13, Veterans Day. A weekend of rainy weather made me itching to get out and ride. Chris was able to get away in the late afternoon and the day had been fairly clear. Since it was only the two of us, we met at Chris’ apartment and we pedaled from there to St. Louis. Yes, we pedaled up the hill. I suppose it was nice that the air was cooling off, but the climb was still as horrible as ever.

We managed to reach the last bend in the road just as the sun set. We met a pair of riders coming out from the park just as we turned onto the road that lead to the entry gate. They didn’t look too dirty, but they said it was muddy down low. Hm, we weren’t about to go home now.  We continued on. The entry road was very damp, so we figured dumps was right out of the ride plan.

Continue reading ‘There Can Be Only One’

Genuine Old School

Cruised by the new Teddy’s Bigger Burgers on Kapiolani for the little car show that Scat was in. Half the parking lot occupied by a small collection of classic American steel and a gaggle of VW Bugs. A couple of Imapalas done contemporary bagged style, a bunch of fairly typical Chevy and Fords.

Looks like Dave’s buddy got into a classic Camaro?

Continue reading ‘Genuine Old School’

Cup Noodle King Seafood Noodle

This thing looks like an oversized prop to make normally sized people look like Hobbits or children. Of course when you see something like this in the convenience store, you have to try it! According to the manufacturer’s website, the 568 calorie “King” versions are almost double the 328 calorie regular version. With the increase in size comes an increase in water to be added, up to half a liter versus the 300 or so needed for the standard. The wait time remains the same. Taste-wise, it’s as good (or as bad, if you will) as the regular version. According to the website, the toppings were supposed to be kanikama (artificial crab) and other fish paste products, squid, cabbage, green onion, and egg. There was flat, white stuff that looked like squid, but I think it was the inner leaves of the kanikama. The only chewy squid-like substance had the purple outer skin of octopus, and I had a piece that I swear had a tentacle sucker. Maybe squid and octopus are lumped together for allergy labeling purposes. The nostalgic thing for me was the foamy dehydrated dried egg that disappeared from the USDM versions of cup noodle to be replaced with corn of the same color in the late 1980’s. The website further states that the soup base is pork, asari, and oyster based. I guess I’m a fan of all ramen, including cup-instant and semi-instant. Of course these aren’t as good as something from a good shop, but they all have their place. Even the nastiest instant ramen will bring back some dirtbag college memory. Nasty this one isn’t. It is one of the better cup ramen that I have had. There was a spicy curry one that I had once that tasted better, but had soup that was unappealingly thick. Go relive your misspent youth and get full at the same time!

Three out of four grunge-monkeys

Recommended

226-yen

More pictures after the break

Continue reading ‘Cup Noodle King Seafood Noodle’

Mandarake

Found the relocated Sapporo Mandarake.  They’re in the Norbessa building with the big ferris wheel on top.  The new shop space is much larger, but it didn’t seem like there was a whole lot more content.  Surprisingly, I didn’t find any unusual figures or arcane DVD’s or manga to add to my collection. Figure-wise, there seemed to be a lot more of the second-tier game prize figures than before.  There were a disturbing number of very graphic, uncensored dakimakura covers.  …Oh, and someone bought the 1:1 scale Kokonoe Rin figure.