Newest Hawaii Geocaches…

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I’m SOOO excited to see some neighbor island caches! Not that I don’t love Oahu caches but the neighbor islands get the shaft sometimes on new caches. We’ve even got a Molokai cache which is rare! So I’ve included 2 extra neighbor island caches than normal. Doesn’t take much to get a geocacher like me giddy!

Kohala Whale Watcher (Big Island)

Jacob’s Super Penguin Cache (Maui)

Ilio pt. cache (Molokai)

TIM302 (Oahu)

Sausage Tree (botanical series) (Big Island)

Ho’okipa Iki (Maui)

Blockbuster opening a distribution center in Honolulu

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The Honolulu Advertiser reports that Blockbuster is moving in on Netflix territory by opening a distribution center in Honolulu to attempt to give residents one day service when ordering movies by mail. In the article, they speak with a Netflix employee who stuffs these envelopes for customers at a rate of 3.6 seconds per envelope and most of the time isn’t even looking down at the envelope while doing so. This explains alot.

We are newer Netflix members since November since we were spending equal to or over their 3 movie per month price of $16.99 on new releases every Tuesday. This seemed ideal to us. 2 months into membership I can tell you we’re considering switching to Blockbuster. We received a new release the day it came out ONE time and that was during our free two week trial membership. More times than not we have to wait for 2-4 weeks before we get a new release. Twice we’ve just gone out and rented new releases that are put on “long wait” which is a minimum of 2 weeks. Lord forbid you’re on a “very long wait” which can be 4 weeks!! If new releases aren’t a big deal to you then consider this part of our experience. If we had to average, 1 in 5 discs we receive are either completely unplayable or skip around so much we have to try other players or our DVD drive in our computer to play it. We’ve received discs that have massive scratches, gaping cracks and even received someone’s audio cd they returned by mistake!! If they’re more concerned with pumping out 4 second turnaround times than doing quality control to make sure what they’re even sending you is even a movie then there’s a problem. We called customer service about it and they were nice enough to send us something out while we returned the CD. Assuming they’d put a note on the account we sent the CD back only to 4 days later receive an email saying we returned a cd instead of a movie (we didn’t, we put it in with another movie return as customer service instructed) and they’d be nice enough to send it back to us. 2 days later we had it back and customer service told us just to throw it away to avoid more confusion.

The upside with Blockbuster seems to be, at least here, that if you have movies to be sent back out to be returned and there’s a new release you want, you can go in store and exchange one of your returns for a new release. Sure you have to go into the store to do that but given that we’re having to wait 2-4 weeks through Netflix, if not longer, and we’re new release junkies then Blockbuster is looking more and more appealing.

So good luck islanders, I hope your new choice of vendors allows you to not be pigeon holed into a company where they seem more concerned with quantity than quality.

Save your lips this winter season with some aloha

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As I sit here recovering from a horrendous respitory infection with the suspicion of the onset of whooping cough by my doc, I’ve had all of the usual cold symptoms in addition to a myriad of other “delights.” When you have a raw nose, sore throat, feel like you got hit by a Mack truck, etc. the last thing you need or want are chapped lips. I don’t know about you but the wax of Chapstick that fills in the cracks of chapped stick just annoys me. Then you have an ointment like balm like Blistex that gums up when you talk.

So I used to just suffer until one time I remembered I had some lip balm from Hawaii. People, I tell you it is the most relieving thing one can apply to cracked, chapped lips. The best part…the ingredients are all natural: palm oil, olive oil, macadamia nut oil, beeswax, natural flavors and aloha. That’s right, aloha. Tonight I felt the burn of those dry lips and put on my Kauai Kiss lip balm by Island Soap and Candle Works and almost instantly my lips were soft and relieved of the annoying pain. I thought my cold weather readers might like to enjoy some relief courtesy of the islands or heck even warm weather people can protect their lips from the sun and wind. I love this stuff and my lips are saying mahalo! I hope you give them a try!

Hawaiian word of the week

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Aloha-(ah-low-ha)- Hello, Goodbye, Love

The alphabet contains 12 letters: 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and 7 consonants (h, k, l, m, n, p, w). To simplify pronunciation, sound consonants as in English and break up words so they are easy to say (ie- Humuhumunukunukuapua’a would be pronounced humu-humu-nuku-nuku-apu-a-a)

Pronounce vowels as follows:

a – a in above; e – e in set; i – ee in see; o – o in some; u – oo in moon.

Pronounce vowels marked by a glottal stop (`) quickly ie- o`o sounds like oh-oh! in English.

Stress rising dipthongs (ae, ai, ao, au, oi, ou, eu, ei) on the first letter and end with a short e, i, o or u. ie- oi sounds like oy in soy, ending with a short “i”.

Aloha Friday Recipe: Kim Chee Hamburger

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Part 1-
Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef or turkey
1 pint kim chee, drained & chopped (save lim chee juice on side)
1/2 C. green onions chopped
1 C. chives, chopped
Oil for frying

In a large bowl, mix above ingredients, except frying oil, & set on the side

Part 2-
Ingredients for Batter:
5 eggs
Kim chee liquid plus water to equal 1/2 C.
1/4 C. flour
3/4 C. cornstarch
1/8 C. Shoyu
1&1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. sugar

Mix batter and add to beef mixture. Batter will be runny. Scoop by spoonfuls and fry in about 1/4 inch oil.

Recipe courtesy Sista Val’s Recipes KPOA

Reserve your tickets for the MHS Fur Ball!

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It’s that time of year! The Maui Humane Society’s annual Fur Ball is coming up in March but reserve your tickets now. Whether you’re a local or a visitor, this a great event to attend and help out the animals of Maui. Just click on the picture to learn more or find out how you can donate if you cannot attend.

Throw the book at ‘em…

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As a pet lover, I cannot even bear to write about this story though I’ve followed it closely. All I can say is I pray the maximum penalty is thrown at these horrible men and for anyone who would dare say they need to eat, there are shelters and food pantries for that.

Click here to read story.

Aloha Friday Recipe: Lahaina Chicken Salad with Pineapple

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Ingredients

3 cups grilled or broiled diced chicken breast
1 cup diced pineapple
1/4 cup each: sliced green onions, red bell pepper
and chopped macadamia nuts

Dressing
1/4 cup oil
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Place the chicken, pineapple, green onions, bell pepper and nuts into a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together all of the dressing ingredients and pour over the salad; toss well to coat. Cover and refrigerate for up to one hour to chill.

Recipe courtesy Maui Gold Pineapple website

For the keiki…

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Here’s a fun little crossword puzzle for the keiki to do!

Click here

Hawaiian word of the week

Filed Under Word of the week | 1 Comment

Mahalo-(muh-ha-low)- Thank you

Pronounce vowels as follows:

a – a in above; e – e in set; i – ee in see; o – o in some; u – oo in moon.

Pronounce vowels marked by a glottal stop (`) quickly ie- o`o sounds like oh-oh! in English.

Stress rising dipthongs (ae, ai, ao, au, oi, ou, eu, ei) on the first letter and end with a short e, i, o or u. ie- oi sounds like oy in soy, ending with a short “i”.

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