Entries Tagged as 'marissa'

Marissa in The Honolulu Advertiser

July 28th, 2009 · No Comments

Speaking of Marissa, I overlooked this drafted post from earlier, when we were in Oahu…. here it is now.

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On our second day of vacation I went to the gym again. I started out this vacation on the right track – exercising and eating fairly well, fresh fish, veggies, etc. Later on, though, our days got busier and our diet, while still delicious, got less healthy. Oh well. It was vacation. Now I need to make up for it!

When I came back to the room Dallas was getting ready to go golfing, but had stopped for a few minutes to read the paper that was delivered to our door. All of a sudden he started freaking out. I couldn’t imagine what the ruckus was. Then he held the paper out to me and there was, Marissa, a close family friend of his, who I have met several times, on almost a full half-page ad for Hawaii Pacific University.

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Dallas kept that section of the paper and later on in the vacation when we visited Marissa in Kauai, he had her sign the ad by her photo. She was so embarrassed!

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The last time we were in Hawaii, Uncle Dee was in the Kauai paper.

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Dinner at the Matsudas

July 28th, 2009 · 2 Comments

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Primo :: Waimea, Kauai

Dallas’s family’s best friends on Kauai are the Matsudas. They live just down the road from where Dallas and his family lived and we try to see them every time we go back to Kauai. This year Aunty Nancy and Uncle Bob invited us over for dinner. When we arrived they were the only ones home and were watching their grandson, Swede, who was just born this year. Isn’t he adorable!?

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Dallas, Swede :: Waimea, Kauai

We sat outside at picnic tables and drank some beer while eating edamame. Aunty Nancy was feeding Swede his dinner, poi with milk. No wonder he’s so big! Well, that and the fact that his dad is something like 6’5″.

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Dallas, Uncle George, Mr. Hee, Uncle Bob :: Waimea, Kauai

Not much later, Uncle George (Uncle Bob’s brother) and Aunty Linda arrived. And then Mr. Hee came by.

For dinner we had Portuguese Meat. Maybe there is a more descriptive name for this dish, but Portuguese meat is what we call it. It’s kind of like pot roast, but way more vinegar-y. Aunty Nancy is Portuguese and knows that Dallas loves this dish so she makes it every time he visits. We had some other dinner, too, but the parts I remember are the desserts. This was the first time I ever had haupia cake, manju or homemade guri guri (I’d only ever had guri guri for the first time two days before).

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Rachelle, Aunty Linda, Swede, Aunty Nancy :: Waimea, Kauai

And then finally, later on, Marissa and Eric, Swede’s parents, arrived with Swede’s sister, Safina. By that time it was dark and everyone was off in different directions. I wanted to take a photo of Safina because she has grown so much since the last time we saw her, but she was off on her scooter and taking a bath and had her own agenda going on. It was nice to be able to visit with everyone. On of these days we need to visit Tandy, Uncle Bob & Aunty Nancy’s other daughter, who now lives in the DC area. She and her husband Chris just had their first baby a few weeks ago. His name is Kai. We haven’t seen Tandy and Chris since their wedding, which seems like forever ago.

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Waimea Barbecue

March 22nd, 2007 · 5 Comments

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Dallas, Waimea, Kaua’i

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Punk Ass Jordan, Waimea, Kaua’i

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Susan & John, Waimea, Kaua’i

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Allison & Tammy, Waimea, Kaua’i

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Uncle Dee, Waimea, Kaua’i

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Pupus, Waimea, Kaua’i

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Koa & Caroline & Carrie, Waimea, Kaua’i

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Såfina Grinds!, Waimea, Kaua’i

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Såfina & Dallas, Waimea, Kaua’i

For dinner we went over to where Dallas’ Uncle Dee and Auntie Kathy live, the house where Dallas grew up in Waimea. It’s always fun for me to go back and see the house and imagine when Dallas’ family lived there. This time his sister and brother, Caroline and Jordan, were with us so we heard a few stories about things that happened there. Going over for dinner is a tradition I always look forward to when visiting Kaua’i.

I was also excited because the last time we saw Marissa was at her sister Tandy’s wedding and she and her husband were expecting their first child. And now it’s been so long since the baby was born. She has a little girl named Såfina who is more than a year old. So cute!

Uncle Dee and Auntie Kathy were great hosts and great cooks. They made dinner for all of us who were visiting and all we had to do was show up with beer. We got Guinness for Uncle Dee and Hinano, a Tahitian beer, for ourselves. These are all the things we had:

  • Barbecue chicken
  • Fried Saimin
  • Sushi with canned tuna (local specialty)
  • Kimchi
  • Poke
  • Lomi lomi salmon
  • Seared Ahi
  • Poi
  • Grilled chicken
  • Grilled steak
  • Lettuce salad
  • Macaroni salad
  • Fruit salad
  • Asparagus
  • Rice

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Malama Maha’ulepu

March 19th, 2007 · No Comments

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Koloa Town, Kaua’i

I saw this bumper sticker while shopping in Koloa Town and didn’t know what it meant. I took a photo and later on asked Dallas, but he didn’t know either. Just now I looked it up online and found out that Malama Maha’ulepu is an advocacy group who is trying to save Maha’ulepu beach and turn it into a preserve so that developers can’t put condos or a resort on it. But the land is privately owned by Grove Farm Company, which is Steve Case’s company, so I’m not sure what they can really do. Also, Dallas’ friend Marissa is a Vice President at Grove Farm. And also, Maha’ulepu beach is the “secret” beach where we’ve been going the last few visits. It’s known that you have to drive through private land to get to the beach and I knew the land was Steve Case’s, but didn’t really put it together right away. Funny how things are all inter-connected.

There’s a lot more online about Maha’ulepu and Grove Farms and people suing Steve Case, if you’re interested.

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Chris & Tandy’s Wedding Reception

July 19th, 2005 · No Comments


Pupus


A nice little keepsake


They also gave away little rice bowls


Dinner Salad


Dancers


Dinner – you could have selected chicken or steak.


Mac Salad


Special Hawaii Bud


Kathy Squared (Dallas’s mom & aunt are both named Kathy)


Dessert


Throwing the bouquet


Throwing the bouquet – Caroline & Rachelle


Getting the garter


Throwing the garter


Rachelle, Dallas, Tandy, Chris


George, Kathy, Caroline, Dallas


Rachelle & Dallas

Following Chris & Tandy’s wedding ceremony was a cocktail hour with pupus and then lunch. Luckily lunch was inside an air conditioned ballroom. A Hawaiian band played while we were eating and some hula and tahitian dancers came out and did their thing. It was very luauish. Remember last year when Dallas was chosen to learn how to do the hula? They did the same thing at the wedding, but with some haole boys from Iowa who couldn’t hula to save their life. It was fun(ny).

After lunch the band and dancers left and there were many speeches and stories told by the wedding party about Chris and Tandy. I found it really interesting since I don’t know Chris and Tandy that well. .. it helped me learn more about them, how they met, and their 8-year long relationship. There were people at the wedding from all over the world, Hawaii, the mainland, Japan, to name a few places, so I’m sure that this was fun for them too.. to hear stories from all different aspects of Tandy & Chris’s lives.

Each of the tables where the guests sat was named for something in Chris & Tandy’s lives. One was the Wiamea table, one the Iowa table, one table was called “8″ representing how many years they’ve been together. Our table was “Food Network vs. ESPN”. Apparently they fight over the remote! After talking story for quite some time, Marissa, Tandy’s sister introduced everyone who’d travelled to attend the wedding. Quite a lot of people.. and like I said, from all over the world. Next Tandy made up a story using the terms represented on each of the tables. It was kind of like Mad Libs and when she pointed to your table you had to shout out the name of your table to finish the sentence and continue on the story. Kind of hard to explain but it worked out really well.

Next, the bride and groom did the traditional bouquet/garter toss. The wedding was small enough that they had a list of the single people and if you were single and didn’t participate your name got shouted out over the microphone and you were peer pressure forced to participate!

Finally, everyone mingled around with drinks in hand. It was a fun, laid back kind of wedding. It was great to feel the love in the room, the friendship between the people attending and how much they loved and respected Chris and Tandy and how they all traveled so far to be there and show their support. Definitely not one of those weddings you attend and feel like you don’t know anyone or like you’re not sure what’s going on with the couple.

In addition to the kukui nut leis, Chris and Tandy gave out personalized chopsticks and small rice bowls.

ยป Dancers (.mov, 19 sec, 528k)

Later on that night Chris and Tandy had a really informal party at Kekaha Beach. A few people went swimming, but mostly we sat around for sunset and the evening, eating pupus and drinking beer and talking. A bonfire was built and some people also caught some crabs on the beach. A nice way to unwind after a long, stressful day for a some people, I’m sure.


Dallas loves this canned beef. You can’t get it on the mainland. This is when we stopped at Big Save in Waimea to get beer for the beach party.


Bon fire at the beach party.

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