Barry O'Brien

I'm sorry mom (and dad), but my name can be kind of a pain.  I feel for Barack Obama.  My name has brought me what I would consider a fair amount of trouble/annoyance in my short life (because of the pronunciation issues), but obviously not nearly as much as Barack's.  But what is your name?  It's just what people call you...it doesn't say anything about you.  My name certainly doesn't say that I'm Swedish or obviously even that I'm from India.  So why do some people read unintended meaning into the name Barack Obama's family gave him (which is an African name)?  He may as well have been named Barry...and his middle name is a family name!  Don't you know like 10 people who have been named after a relative?  

I didn't even vote for Obama, but I feel bad about what is happening to him in this campaign. There are too many out-and-out lies being thrown around, and they could easily be set right by even just going to wikipedia.  First of all,  I happen to have some friends who are Muslims and it is NOT okay with me that they are being marginalized in this way.  And what's even more ridiculous is that Barack Obama isn't even Muslim (as if that would be such an awful thing!).  How can someone on one hand be associated with a radical Christian leader and on the other hand be "accused" of being of a completely different faith?  Barack Obama is a Christian- if that matters to you.  

If you care about where this country is going and have the same values as Mr. Obama, I think a vote in his direction is a good way to go.  I would've voted for him, but for the fact that we don't agree in the area of Gay Rights.  At least do yourself the service of checking into where he stands on the basic issues by visiting his site at: Barack Obama: the Issues

It'll take 5 minutes, but it's a decision that will last at least 4 years.

Bye-Bye Kauai

Being that I'm such a coconut fan- I found it only proper that we go to the Coconut Festival in Kapaa.  The festival would've been more fun had I not already fulfilled my non-GF quotient for the day/week/year, because they had coconut treats in abundance, but it was actually really fun to see the local-made crafts all in one location.  I was only wearing SPF-30, and you've SEEN my skin, so we didn't linger at the Festival.  I later found out that there were demos showing how to weave baskets out of coconut fronds, but I guess I missed out.  :(

We stepped out onto the main street of Kapaa (Kuhio Hwy), which is not unlike Atwater (for the 3 readers who have been there!), although maybe a bit more rustic and worldly.  On this little main street is the little mom & pop shop called Pono Market where Milind and I got our marriage license.  The man who gave us our marriage license took our picture to put up on his wall with all of the other happy couples and we had hoped to go and "find" ourselves-but Pono Market was inexplicably closed the days we were there.  

How about Monico's Taqueria for a surprisingly delicious lunch or dinner?   We decided to drop by there and check it out and were really loving our lunch.  Mexican food on Kauai? YES!!!  But then, follow it up with some Lappert's.  Which is what we did.  :)   "Tutu's Anniversary" again, which is what they call the flavor I love: Coconut, Passion Fruit and Raspberry Sorbet.  Mmmmmmmm.  Oh how I miss it.  

We went to the beach for awhile and then up to our hotel room...and I was looking out the window and noticed a commotion near the water on the beach.  We ignored it for awhile, but Milind was convinced that there was a Monk Seal on the beach, so we went out there.  Sure enough, there were two Monk Seals gamboling around in the water.  I took about 50 steps back.  I felt really strongly about not bothering them.  

There were several people there (yet, keeping their distance, due to some "Monk Seal 

Volunteers") with cameras, and they were able to capture the Monk Seals playing with eachother as they came out of the water onto the beach. 

Keeping in mind that we had an Anniversary dinner reservation, we headed back up to our room to get ready.  There was a knock at our door, and the champagne arrived!  Milind threw himself a little 15 minute party.  The party continued at the Hukilau Lanai, which is a semi-fancy shmancy restaurant adjacent to our hotel, which is the same restaurant to which Milind and I "wandered aimlessly through the night" on the night of our wedding.  It was only fitting that we go back exactly 2 years to the day.  We didn't get to sit at the same table, though.  :(  The food there is pretty good...Milind got the Mixed Grill 

(which was Ono, Butterfish and Shrimp) and I got the Filet Mignon.  Of course there was the option of going to get some Lappert's afterward, but I declined. (WHAT WAS I THINKING?!)  We went back to the hotel and caught the last half of the Amazing Race.  

After a seriously overpriced Breakfast Buffet (aren't Buffets always overpriced?), we decided to checkout kinda early.  Bernice, the very kindly woman at the front desk, shares a name with one of my great aunts, and I told her so.  She shrank back and replied that she really dislikes her name.  I think that's too bad, because I happen to really love the name Bernice.  My aunt Bernice influenced me in a lot of ways and taught me A LOT of things, but one of the most basic was how to tie my shoes.  

I wanted to grab a book to read on the plane-and as far as I know there isn't a Borders anywhere near Kapaa-so we headed over to the ABC Store and I got a Botany book about the flowers of Hawaii.  I needed something that would hold my attention like that Pomeranian book did on the way over!  We were SO early to the airport-  I think we were about 4 hours early.  We unfortunately had seats that were in different rows, so we were on the hunt to find people to switch seats with us.  I asked a couple people in the waiting area, but no such luck.   Once we got on the plane, we did find a man who would be a great potential candidate to switch seats with us, but when we asked him to switch, he literally got one notch below irate with us.  The stewardess came over to see if she could help diffuse the situation.  She explained the situation and it must've sounded better coming from someone in a uniform, because he finally relented.  Once we were all in our seats, the man patted Milind on the shoulders and said something to the effect of, "Don't worry about it, man".  At least Milind and I got to sit next to eachother.  HOWEVER--Milind had the window seat, I had the middle seat (AGAIN!  I hate the middle!) and on the aisle was a man who had recently had a stroke and had lost the use of his left side.  It turned out that we were basically pinned into our seats for the 5 hour flight, because this man couldn't move from his seat without assistance.  I usually drink water like a fish...I really rationed the water on this flight.  My poor kidneys!

So we arrived back in San Francisco and found our parking shuttle (FastTrack) without any drama, and we actually made it home by 10pm.  A weekend was just enough time to spend in Kauai...for people like us who don't hike and don't scuba.  I think if you're a little more adventurous, you could easily spend a long time on Kauai and find countless things to do there.  Our main focus was a relaxing weekend getaway, though--we weren't there to enjoy the mountains like most people.  Next time we go to Hawaii, we'll check out a different island, just for some variety; not that we don't love Kauai--we just want to have some new experiences.  

Move Over Richard Simmons, Here Comes Charles Nelson Reilly

It struck me today- as we were playing back some video we shot at the beach-that I may have the curly hair problem solved by wearing a hat, but I wear some SERIOUSLY big glasses.   

AAAAAAAny-way, it felt really good to wake up at 7:30 this morning and not even feel bad that I was cheating my body's clock

 which really thought it was 10:30.  Ah, the beauty of traveling West instead of East!  

Of course we had breakfast, which was "eh".  Although the service here is always EXCELLENT.  It must be tough to get a job here.  I've seen some serious hustle.  

We wandered aim

lessly for the rest of the day, first stopping at Kilauea

 Lighthouse,

 where there were some very stinky birds nesting in the sides of the hills.  Our next random stop was 'Anini Beach, where we got out and put our feet in the water.  It was a windy day, so the water seemed a little chilly at first, but it

 warmed up almost immediately.  We wished we had brought our snorkeling gear.  

It was on to Princeville, where we made a STUPID decision to eat at an unknown restaurant called the Paradise Bar & Grill.  Milind was very disappointed with his meal.  I was pretty okay with it, as I continued my Jacket Potato streak.

  :)

Just across the street from the Princeville Shopping Center is the Hanalei Scenic Lookout (that is what I'm calling it), where a very famous picture of Milind's family was taken 2 years ago.

  We had to stop there and reminisce...

We went up as far as Hanalei and then turned around and went back South again.  Our plan was to stop by Lydgate park, but we got sidetracked into stopping at Opaekaa Falls.  Boring.  I'm not a falls person.  I have a picture of myself and my father at these same 

falls from 2 years ago with boredom written all over my face.  

BEAD STORE!!  Finally.  And I practically had to beg for it.  We went to Bead-A-Licious in Lihue.  I was half-scared that they would be closed by the time we got there, and I'm sure Milind was wishing they would be.  But they weren't!  They had some cute stuff there, but really different from what I usually see in a bead store.  There were some really cool Bead mixes and some cool Lucite Hawaiian flower beads.  There were very few seed beads.  I did get one vial, which I plan to design into a special bracelet for MYSELF.  The girl that works there is REALLY cute and they had some really cute ready-made bracelets and necklaces.  I got some good ideas.  

No swimming.  The pool was really crowded.  Not our scene.  It was time for dinner, so we went to Pacific Island Bistro, which Milind has been talking about since our last visit.  Actually, to be more exact, he has been talking about their "Pan Seared Opakapaka", which he calls, "Pan Seared Okapaka".  I practiced with him over and over the correct pronunciation before we entered the restaurant, and he finally got it down....and then when he was ordering with the waiter, he totally faltered.  It was hilarious.  I had the Red Curry with Chicken, and it was honestly the best meal I've had since we've been here. 

Except for the ice cream!  We totally went back to Lappert's after dinner.  I got the coconut, passion fruit and raspberry again and it was SOOOOO good.  A perfect way to end the day.

This morning we were awakened at about 730 by a phone call from India;  my mother in law was calling to wish us a Happy Anniversary.  We rolled out of bed and got started...our goal was to get over to the Kountry Style Kitchen in Kapaa.  When we finally did get over there (Milind is a little slow in the morning), we had a 45 minute wait for a table, but it was worth it.  I did what I said I was going to do, and I ate something non-GF.  We both had Coconut French  Toast with Coconut Syrup.  So delicious.  When in Kauai, GO TO THE KOUNTRY STYLE KITCHEN!

Today, we're thinking of going to the Coconut Festival and also snorkeling.  We'll see...with us, anything could happen-or not!  

TTFN!

I'm Richard Simmons ovah he-yah

I look like Richard Simmons Ovah He-yah. The humidity 

is much higher than normal here due to some unusual rain...I think I will be wearing my hat for the rest of my visit here.  (Scroll down for a shot that kinda shows how curly my hair is.)

Our plane was over booked.  I’m not very fond of United...paying for checked baggage is a notion that doesn’t go over very well for me at all.  I find it (as the professor would say) PREPOSTEROUS.  Let’s put on top of that that Smarty Pants (that’s me) chose two seats:  window (for Milind, he LOVES the window) and middle (for me, I HATE the middle) in the very last row of the airplane, and there we sat for 5 hours behind a very rambunctious 2 year old with a faux hawk and a dirty diaper that his parents didn’t change.  I had had it by the time the flight was over.  The only thing that got me through the flight was this AWESOME little book about Pomeranians that I had brought with me.  I was entranced for at least 3 hours with that book.  

When we got to Kauai, as I said, it was very humid.  Our bags were the last off the conveyer...and we got to the Alamo rental car LINE and we were kinda LAST.   We were standing right behind this well-traveled couple who were a bit excessive with their PDA.  Get a room!  Well, it turned out we had to wait like 20-30 minutes for these shuttle buses to pick us up and take us to the rental facility.  It was so anticlimactic.  We just wanted to go eat some lunch and get to the hotel!  We were pretty hungry and tired.  

At Alamo, even though we signed up for an economy car, they upgraded us to a bigger car....oooh!  A Buick!  As we drove down the Highway, Milind noticed a red car in the rearview and the guy driving it was wearing a beret.  The PDA couple was right behind us!   It was more and more funny as we got closer to our hotel, and became HILARIOUS when they pulled in behind us at our same hotel.  

Now I want to tell you about this AMAZING hotel.  The people who work here are like sweeter than honey.  The first time we came here, for our wedding, I remember that they upgraded our room and sent us champagne when they found out that we were getting married at the hotel.  So when I went up to the counter and we were getting our room, I told the lady that we got married here 2 years ago, right on the beach and that we are here for our anniversary, and what does she do?  She upgrades our room and sends us champagne.  Of course, I don’t drink champagne, but that’s beside the point. We now have an awesome Ocean View room just steps away from the beach.  

Speaking of the beach.  We went to the beach almost as soon as we got here.   This is the beach where we got married.  It was surreal being back in the same spot.  It was really beautiful.  When we got married, I made the decision in my mind (a bad decision, it turned out) that I was going to be respectful of my new mother and father in law and make the kiss at the end of the ceremony very unemotional...just a peck.  (Because I have been told that public displays of affection in India are offensive.)  I have regretted that since the moment it happened.  I have felt cheated for basically 2 years.  Well, when I went to that beach and I kissed my husband again, the way I wanted to kiss him, it made me feel a little better.  

We went back to the Olympic Cafe, and we were STARVING.  It was one of our FAVORITE restaurants from when we were here before.  To be honest, I couldn’t wait to go.  For me, though, it was quite a let down.  They had maybe one gluten free item on their menu.  I ordered it (it had to be modified to be gluten free) and it suh-ucked.  Here’s the problem.  Milind ordered fish tacos.  I ordered chicken tacos.  My chicken tacos came back tasting exactly like a fish taco.  Inedible.  And I was starving.  Not a good situation.  

Luckily there was Lappert’s! If you’ve been to Hawaii you know Lappert’s.  We went over to the Coconut Marketplace, which is a rundown strip mall kinda place, which is oddly filled with some high-end stores, and we got some of that amazing ice cream.  Milind got his usual strawberry.  I, on the other hand, had to go “island” and got Passion Fruit, Raspberry Sorbet and Coconut with Macadamia Nut.  Mmmmmmmmmm.  Gimme anything coconut.  

After that we went for a drive...and let me just say, fatique had set in.  I was really feeling run down.  We went back to the room for awhile, watched the news about Trooper Gate and then decided to have some dinner.  I wanted a burger.  

We headed down to the bar and I got a burger.  No bun, of course.  :)  I attempted to blog when we got back to the room, but the internet suck-eth here.  I am currently typing this off-line and am hoping to get the internet to work SOON. 

If it does, you can look for another update again in the very near future.  Good day!  OH BTW, the weather is great! 

Please Vote No on Prop 8

Yes, I've already written more than I intended to write, but there are still words in me, so what can I do?  I've got to write more.  

The following is intended to be read by my heterosexual readers:

Do you know someone who is gay?  Do you love someone who is gay?  Seriously.  I'm asking you if they are your friend or if they are your family.  It's very simple.  Don't they have the right to love someone and honor someone as an equal the same way you will/did when you got married?  How can your answer be no?  How can you POSSIBLY take the fundamental right to love and honor away from another person (and to be loved and honored in return)?  

Prop 8 doesn't remove any of your rights.  Read the facts yourself on the website I've put on my list to the right.  Gay people aren't different from you...they have families, too- and it's about time that they are granted the equality to make their families complete with the bond of marriage. Overturning this decision and making marriage impossible for uncountable California gays is sending the wrong message.  We need to foster equality and inclusion.  I understand that some people, maybe a lot of people are more conservative in their beliefs than me.  To them, I have to reiterate that you need to get the facts.  Prop 8 doesn't mean that gay people are going to take over the world and your children are going to all turn gay (which is a silly notion, but one which I've heard people admit).  Being gay isn't a religion, and they're not actively looking for converts.  And think about it.  Just because you deny a right to a person doesn't make them any less of who they are, does it?  

Voting NO on Prop 8 is the right thing to do.  

To finish, I will just share one thing.  There are a few people, though very precious, that I know who are directly affected by this Proposition.  I'd like to think I would care as much even if it weren't for them, but regardless, I'm very passionate about this.  These are LOVELY people.  The kind of people who make the world a better place on a daily basis.  They MORE than deserve the equality they've been given since being afforded the right to gay marriage, and they MORE than deserve to maintain that right.  If you were gay, wouldn't YOU want and deserve the right to marry the person you love?  Really read that question again.  Ask yourself seriously.  

Please Vote No on Prop 8.  It's about equality, not about being gay.

Here we go!

The trip is just a day away now and we are so looking forward to it.  I may even go a little crazy and eat something that's not Gluten Free...but I'll only do it once, so I'm going to make it good.  It's almost been a year since I was diagnosed, and since then I have never (knowingly) eaten anything that was not GF and my life is, I would say, 10 times better because of it.  

I don't want to go off on a tangent, because I was talking about the trip, but I do think people generally have the question, "How could your life possibly be 10 times better just because you went off wheat?!".  I really do get asked that a lot.  And the answer is two-fold.  First of all, my tummy thanks me.  I went probably 2 to 3 years undiagnosed, and I had serious stomach issues.  So that speaks for itself.   And second of all, like as soon as I went off wheat, probably within a week- I started to feel WAY more energetic.  I was getting NOTHING done when I was eating gluten.  Celiac kinda sucks, but I won't go back to wheat (nor the long list of other things I can't eat).

On the same topic, I was thinking of starting maybe a list of places (restaurants) in my area where I've eaten and not gotten a bad reaction.  But would that make this more of a Celiac blog than a Bead blog?  I guess I can call it whatever I want to call it.  It's my blog and I can write about whatever I want.   And it's up to you whether you want to read it.  (Suddenly, they all rushed for the door...)

So with that said, the first place I would like to recommend is a place that my husband and I go to ALL the time, and we've gone there for years.  I know a lot of things on the menu are safe, but to be honest, I've never tried the thing they're probably famous for.  It's House of Falafel on Stevens Creek (Cupertino-there's one on Lawrence as well).  I've had the Kebabs and the rice and the hummus-all SUPER delicious, but I've never tried a falafel...I don't know if they use actual flour in them, or just chickpeas.  Obviously, you have to use your Celiac discretion there; for instance, you couldn't have a wrap.  Stick with the Kebabs and I would say you're safe.  And if you're going with your non-GF friend, have them order the DELICIOUS baklava, which I tasted before I was diagnosed, and I miss very much.  Also, I've never had the Shawerma, but I would vouch for that, too.  It looks okay...but once again, use your judgment.

Now that I've broken through the wall, you can look forward to more GF restaurant recos as the blog trudges forward.  We tend to eat out a lot.  That's not to say I don't cook!  I cook like every night!  But a girl likes to go out!  (and so does her husband)

So look forward (on Friday-or Saturday morning) to a new post on our first day in Hawaii, hopefully with some pictures.  And of course, in the days following that, there will be updated posts on a (anticipated) daily basis.  

Well now I've written more than I intended to write.  :)  Bonus!  TTFN!

More Beads, Please!

Just a short post to say that I have been working on some special orders lately and that I haven't posted new items on Etsy.com in about a week and a half...but don't worry!  There will be a couple new items posted very soon, and until then you can enjoy the very cute stuff that is already there.  Here's a quick link--and there's one to the right, as well.  I also wanted to remind new readers that you can read old posts by going to the bottom of the page and clicking on "Older Posts", or by directly clicking on the date of the post on the right side of your screen.  TTFN!