Penny ok, Raintree Cafe, long lunch

After another night of being monitered at the Veterinary Hospital, Penny is ok'd and can come home!

She's alert and energetic again...so different from monday evening when we brought her in.
I'm still feeling the effects of that sleepless  night !

A patient comes to say goodbye to Penny.

Tried a new bakery and loved it!
They bake their goods in new, clean ovens in the store.

Very pretty interior of the Raintree Bakery and Coffee House.

So tempting with the morning light coming throught the windows from Piikoi St, to have a pumpkin walnut muffin (full of chunky walnuts) and coffee.
Hmm they also serve sandwiches.

What an enjoyable day.   Lunch with Melissa and Cathy at Jimbo's and dessert at MacDonalds!
And Penny is safe at home again.

Penny's Peril

Yesterday in the evening Penny started showing digestive
distress.  The bloody stools and spittle scared me.  Our Vet refers patients to the Veterinary Emergency Referral Center after 8 pm, so we took her to the nearest, on Kapiolani Blvd.

There was a Vet there, with techs and a receptionist, who quickly checked her in.
Like in a human emergency room, we had to wait for what seemed like hours while they did tests and made her comfortable.

People kept bringing their pets in and we talked to a few until finally at around 11 pm the Vet explained that they had her on an IV for dehydration, but she was still drooling and showing blood.
X rays showed no foreign objects, just  pockets of inflammation in her intestines.

They wanted to do more testing so she spent the night there.
At 6 a.m. the Vet called to say everything seemed normal (no Parvo, parasites, e coli, foreign bodies),  so she could go home.

But a while later, we got another call to say she showed blood again, and she wouldn't eat so it would be better if they observed her for another day.

We wanted to take her familiar food so we went to Happy Paws, next to Aloha Dog Day Care.

The goods are mostly from Japan.  Cute doggie items and food.

Picky eater Penny seems to like this so far so we brought it to the Pet Hospital, but didn't see her.

At the Mall we shared a grilled cheese sandwich at Blue Hawaii, thinking of poor Penny in a crate and suffering from indigestion.

The center walkway of the new Ewa Wing of the Mall should be ready for Christmas.

Relaxing after singing and dancing.

After an interesting but tough vocal lesson with Craig Sensei (we're going deeper into deep breathing), we had to
have a drink and dinner at Assaggio's.

The water plants and red stemmed palms were
green and flourishing next to the entrance.

Sunday we went to see Denise and her hula sisters dance at the Neal Blaisdell Center's Senior Fair.
Has it already been a year since we last were  here for this event?

Graceful skirts  for "La Vaquero"

Hula about love for a child.

And Kalua, the dance taught in most PE classes when we were young.

After the performance, we met up at Kincaid's for drinks and dinner.
We don't know how much longer this old restaurant will be there or when Ward's Warehouse will become the site of a new luxury Kakaako condominium.

Before Kincaid's it was Horatio's (famous for its Pimm's Cup and Creme Brûlée)

Not only is Jay an ex-Marine, but he's a gentleman too.

Denise's hula sister, Johnette, who told us such interesting things about Hawaiian customs and Hula.

On the way home we saw the moon that is ushering autumn in.  

Marbled steak, Pudgie

Went to J-Shop, a Japanese grocery store, known for its fresh fish and meats, as well as hard to find food stuff from Japan.

A friend told me how buttery and tender the Wagyu was...and how expensive.  The butcher will cut the beef into steaks, and also slice  the fresh fish into sashimi and arrange it on a plate for the customer.
This block of steak was $397 but others were in the $500 or $600s range.
The marbling (shimofuri in Japanese) was beautiful.

There are fresh and frozen fish  too.
Also a room where you can order a bento and
eat it there.

We ordered the teriyaki Wagyu steak bento to go. 

Absolutely tender, with no tough bits.  The rice was good too.
Too bad it was teriyaki style--not too strong --but such good meat
can stand alone.

Here is Pudgie on his outing this morning.

Ever since we had his wings trimmed and put him in a cage, he looks forward to being let out and seeing the "world".

Better trim his wings again.  He was able to fly into the bathroom.

These toilet paper cover dolls were a popular hobby many years ago.
These two were made by two beloved ladies who are no longer with us:
my mother-in-law did the one with a giant bird on her head,
and my mother did the one
who seems to be shooing it away.

Shokudo and Tokoname

Penny really is a very long dachshund, but she can jump very high, which is terrible for her back.

She blends in very well among the crotons.

Shokudo is another restaurant that's open all day from 11:30 am.

Happy hour Teriyaki Chicken Quesadillas (three instead of six) and my favorite Hamachi Carpaccio.

Later, we stopped at Nijiya, a Japanese Market, to pick up some tofu and, in the popular tsukemono (pickled vegetables) section we saw a variety of ume (salted plums), and mozuku (vinegered seaweed) as well as the usual cucumber, daikon and eggplants.

Today, we went to Tokoname in Manoa (there's one in Kailua too) because it's 25% off on Tuesdays.

I had the Mu Sake Sampler again.
 
The Junmai Daiginjo Mu was as smooth, fragrant and mellow tasting as biting into a sweet lychee.

My hairdresser at Yamano Aiko Salon , who likes Sake, told me to drink an equal amount of water before you drink each cup of sake. 

R's Pork Tonkatsu and Sashimi Teishoku.

The mountains around the valley were green and lush and the air smelled light and clear.

Storage room, Anna Millers

After working for days in our hot storage room packed with boxes from our move from Japan,  as well as accumulated things, we finally organized everything on those wonderful rolling shelves.

I became quite adept at assembling 6 of them which we bought at Lowe's and City Mill.  

Unfortunately, Frost's " something there is that does not love a wall" also doesn't love a vacuum,
and the room found itself full again.

But now we can pull out the shelves to access things in back! 

The things you find that you had forgotten about.
A carving given to R, an unfinished basket from my basketry class at the Art Academy and rolls of reeds.

                                                                       *  *   *   *   *

Today we went to Pearl Ridge SC .  It's been over a couple of years since we last visited.

Farrell's - no longer in the Kahala SC.

Of course, we had to stop at Ånna Miller's for some pie.

While here we ordered supper too.
Soup and a choice of corn bread or bun comes with your order.

Pork Chops.  Penny shall have the other  one for her supper tonight.

Turkey, without gravy.  

Dutch Apple Pie a la Mode.  Yum.

The seasonal fresh Strawberry Pie.

There was an Anna Miller's in Kichijoji, Tokyo, where we always went to with Les, Daren and the girls when the kids were small.
The pies were delicious and so was the grape ice cream so we stoically drank the awful coffee that somehow never improved.