Sunday, June 27 (Day 7): Today we went to Mass in Waimea with Fr. Bob. It was good to see him again. Deacon Bill was there as well, a little too wordy for me. He works too hard to come up with a sermon. We explored Waimea and went to the Hawaiian Style Cafe on the Mamalahoa Highway just before (east of) Merriman’s on the north side. It is a small place with a counter and HUGE pancakes. Good fare, interesting cheeseburger omlette for breakfast!
Went to the Farmer’s Market down by milepost 56 in the Waimea Country Club. The attendance was way down and the vendors were not too numerous, a little disappointing. We bought some bromeliads from a vendor there, they are called “Pink Quill”, beautiful but strange looking. 4 for ＄12.00!
Came home relaxed, hit some more balls on the range (closes at 4:00 p.m.) and then went to Buzz’s SandTrap restaurant down past the King’s MarketPlace. Good steak place, will try again. They have a pretty good SALAD BAR for ＄10.95. Sandy had the Prime Rib, Cowboy Style – lighly smoked on the Kaiwe wood grill and I had the New York, Peppercorn style. ＄5.00 Mai-Tai’s for 3:30 – 5:30 happy hour.
Started watching 24, the TV series, it could be addicting! on the Mac Mini via the Plex interface. I think the screen resolution of 1344 x 756 is just right to see while sitting down on the couch. Pretty cool stuff.
Saturday, June 26 (Day 6): Fix-it day, installed new towel racks, hook for our new mobile sculpture and other odds and ends around the condo. We cleaned the glass panels and floors inside and out and the easiest way is just on your hands and knees. Too much work.
Friday, June 25 (Day 5): Went to the range and “practiced” putting and hitting our 7-iron, this stuff takes some work! Friendly staff and really reasonable prices we are finding out. Practice, practice! A nice, cool overcast day to practice and we tried out Spike’s for lunch. I had the Cobb Salad and Sandy had the Roast Beef sandwich, both we delicious and we were out for about ＄30.00.
We went back to the Costco and Home Depot in Kona for a few more things before we install our new projects. I need some hooks and concrete bits for the mobile and a level for the towel rack install. Picked up a bedroom Vizio 32″ LCD TV and the coax cable is just a few inched too short. We can save energy by re-cycling the old 20″ CRT TV and our eyes aren’t as sharp as they used to be. Should have picked up the cable at Home Depot, argh.. Costco chicken – yummy!
Came home and Sandy made here 7-layer dip for the 5:00 p.m. Friday night happy hour gathering by the pool. A nice group of folks and we picked up a few more eatery tips. “Buzz’s Sandtrap” (steak and salad bar) past the King’s Marketplace, in Waimea, the Hawaiian Style Restaurant (breakfast) and the Bakery in the KTA shopping center, the bakery on the way to Hilo on the northeast side, (I think this one is in the book).
Thursday, June 24 (Day 4): Sandy worked in the morning, I played with the Mac Mini installing the ripped movies I brought on the external drive. Installed Plex and Hulu, but didn’t bother with Boxee. It’s interface is too confusing for me and too cluttered. Great TV resolution but a little tiny to read at full 1080p, I have to play around with the resolution. After a few panic moments trying to enable sound (you have to enable it in the System Preference pane, Sound, Output and pick the Vizio TV), everything worked. The confusing thing is that the Mac tells you that the “Selected device has no output controls” leading me to believe, incorrectly, that the sound won’t work from the external display. Audio in fact works just fine, the only difference is that the computer sound icon/volume control is grayed out and no computer chirps/sounds come out on the TV. Audio is routed directly to the TV via the HDMI interface, as it is supposed to. The only sound from the computer now is the startup bong. 2 connections, TV and HDMI to the TV make connection a real snap now. Apple got this one right.
We went down to Kona to see a movie and had lunch at Don’t Mai-Tai bar. We brainstormed the idea of bringing Pat out to our place and set the plans in motion. The movie we saw was Knight and Day and I promptly fell asleep through 1/2 of it, oh well. We hit the Lowe’s, Macy’s and Safeway as well and Sandy made spaghetti for dinner. We found and purchased some nice towel racks to replace those in our bathroom and some new fixtures for the kitchen sink and our bathroom that we liked. We just have to find a handyman to install them.
We received our mobile from August Munich packed really well and safe. I am anxious to install it on the lanai.