Day: November 3, 2005

Hard Sell

The package included a free breakfast, which we were shuttled to. It turned out to be the vacation equivilent of a timeshare lecture. What a hard sell. At least we got out of there by 9. We went to the Maui Divers center, where they make Hawaiian coral jewelry. Very very nice.

We drove out to Pearl Harbor, going to the Arizona and Missouri memorials. Very moving to have gone on All Souls Day. Arizona marked the beginning of World War II with more than a thousand hands lost on board. Missouri is the Pacific version of the Intrepid; the Japanese surrendered on its deck at the end of World War II.

Driving back, we got stuck on the highway during rush hour. We got off at Chinatown; it was mostly closed by the time we got there, but we had some good Vietnamese food. It was way too much food. Afterwards, we were trying to find the Sony Expo at the Ala Moana Hotel; instead we were snagged at the Ala Moana shopping center, the largest open air mall in the US. It’s already Christmas (Mele Kalikimaka) season here, so everything was out. There’s a supermarket in the rear of the mall, where we loaded up on cheap fruit drinks and water.

Cloudy Arrival

The clouds were ominious when we arrived. Dark, swift clouds contrasted deeply with a bright sunset. We arrived at Honolulu to be greeted by an American Airlines staffer with lei. We had no idea that our super discount package included it. We were totally dazed – the 12 hour flight made those butt-in-seat miles really do a number to the tail bones, and there was a Hawaiian couple with 2 young kids that were bobbing around the whole trip. It was a good thing that we swapped seats with them. The movie was “Must Love Dogs”, which wasn’t that hot either.

The compact car that we got was a full sized Impala, which was more than enough car for what we wanted. We checked in and got upgraded to an ocean view room on the 23rd floor – which was nice and quiet, but I knew this going in that an ocean-view room doesn’t really mean much in the dark.

We were starving when we arrived, so we went to the sushi buffet known as Todai. The air conditioning wasn’t working, but it just meant that they got the fish out there much faster (their chilling tables were working). Really really good – we were stuffed.

Hit the mandatory ABC store to get supplies, and then passed out.

Middle of the Week

So, Tuesday night:

On CBS, I watched “NCIS” – the “JAG” spinoff. There’s something about this show that I can’t help liking. Actor Mark Harmon – well, geez, you could never go wrong with Mark Harmon (that his Secret Service character was killed off so badly yet valiantly on “West Wing” was really sad). Actor Michael Weatherly (playing Special Agent DiNozzo) is a cutie (well, his character on “Dark Angel” was a cutie until the show got tiresome). And, the cast has a nice chemistry – one feels that they like working with each other and it makes their group of characters feel like a family too. It’s not a bad show, but if I have to keep seeing ex-JAG actors show up, geez, now that’ll be annoying.

On FOX, The Return of Dr. House! House deals with Dr. Sebastian, a sanctimonious self-righteous doc who is trying to end TB in Africa, only to develop TB himself and something heart condition. House, of course, can’t avoid being an annoying S.O.B. Actor Ron Livingston playing the rival doctor (who’s a lousy patient – no surprise, whoever heard of a doctor who’s a good patient? House himself sucked as a patient) – well, he’s a cutie of an actor… Well, all fun. Dr. Foreman got himself (and thus House) into trouble, and Dr. Chase may never go very far with Dr. Cameron, who’s a sucker for older, attractive male doctors who are asses. 😉

Star Wars III DVD is coming — I still get a kick out of the clip in that commercial of Obi Wan Kenobi yelling in anguish, “You were the Chosen One!!” in the final fight scene with Anakin Skywalker. (and, yeah, Ewan McGregor’s another cutie…)

The passing of Michael Piller, the executive producer of much Star Trek: The Next Generation, (co-creator of) Deep Space Nine, and an exec-producer of Voyager.