Here & There: April 2015

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Happy Birthday!

I can't believe another year has already past. I spent the day thinking about all our past birthdays and I have come to the conclusion that birthdays are better spent together. I am grateful for the technology we have nowadays so we weren't completely apart today. Lisa and I scheduled pedicures together, but 3,000 miles apart. We chatted over the phone lines (is that how it even works anymore? I'm probably behind the times, huh?) and got our toes pampered together.

I visited Reflections Salon in Rexburg. I loved it. My pedicurist (is that a word?) was Heather, super sweet and didn't mind at all that I spent the whole time on my phone. The salon is currently under renovation and so far the work seems promising, it will be spectacular when it's complete. I really like Namasté Salon here in town, but I will definitely be back to Reflections too.

Heather gave me lots of scent options for the foot soak, I chose pineapple so I could feel closer to you and Hawaii. I chose a pretty, sparkly, red-orange polish, something for summer.

The chairs were comfy and Heather did an amazing job with my feet, I especially enjoyed the massage.

All in all I would recommend Reflections for a pedicure, and you should definitely take a girlfriend with you!

Here's me missing you,
Happy Birthday,
Cheers!

Jessica

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Aloha from Oahu!

I, too, cannot believe it's been 28 years and we haven't killed each other yet. Twin power, man! I'm so grateful for technology which allows us to still whisper in each other's ears even from 3,000 miles apart. I love you, I miss you, I wish you were here. But you're always in my heart so that makes it a little easier to bear.

On Friday April 17, 2015 I woke up early to get to my salon of choice, Bee Nail Salon, by 9:30AM. All of the chairs but one were filled which shocked me for a Saturday morning. Plus, this space is tiny so only about five customers will fit for pedicures at a time. I let them know I was there for my appointment and they sat me down in the last one, furthest from the door. They had Mouse Trap playing on one of the TVs. If you're interested, I think it was streaming from Netflix. LJ might enjoy it. :)

I picked a corally-pink color for my nails. I was originally going to go for black but decided against it. I wanted something bright and cheerful and when I saw this pink color it made me think of you, dear sister. I sat down, we started talking, and the world fell away. An hour passed and Jess had finished her pedicure. I was still waiting for the lacquer to dry and a design to be put on my big toe.

(putting a pretty flower on my toes... almost done! Don't mind my bare legs... it happens a lot here in Hawaii...)

(If I look to my right)

(If I look straight in front of me)

(Pretty Piggies!!)

(Pretty Piggies! And a pretty jade anklet. I haven't had an anklet in forever. Laura and I purchased it at the Swap Meet on Sunday.)

After my pedicure I went to pick up my good friend Laura. She was in Oahu for 10 days and had flown in the night before. I picked her up, we went back to Wahiawa and then found ourselves at the Dole Plantation. Lovely. The Dole Pineapple Whip is delicious! It's a frozen yogurt of sorts. Very tasty. Of course we took some pictures...

(L&L at Dole)

(Me about to consume the Whip)

(OM NOM NOM!!)

(A tiny pineapple -- it takes two years for a pineapple to go from field to market!)

(Koi pond. There were children feeding them fish pellets. That's why they're so congregated in the lump)

(Koi Pond)

(Playing Tourist)

(Gotta appreciate the views in Hawaii)

After Dole we headed north. We had a little bit of time to kill before some of my good friends were off work. We ended up in Haleiwa. We were walking along one of the beaches and went to find a bathroom. When we walked up to the bathroom we saw a large group of tourists taking pictures. I couldn't figure out what they were looking at. After the bathroom, I came out and they were gone. So I went to where they were standing... and there were sea turtles! Right in front of me there were three. Out further there were two more I could see breaching the waves. To my left I saw another three. Amazing! This is my first real photo-evidence encounter with turtles. I'm not a lier!! Check it out:

(they were eating the greenery you see here)

(Turtle shell!)

(there's two of them)

(turtle, turtle, turtle!)

(I had time to take a video.)

Laura wanted to go pet them. They were that close to us. Unfortunately, that's illegal and if we get reported it's a huge fine. So. No petting sea turtles.

After the turtles we headed through mid-day traffic to Aiea to pick up two guy friends. After we picked them up we braved through traffic once more and went to the Ala Moana mall. The plan was to drop off something for one of Laura's mainland co-worker's sons. He's a waiter at Bubba Gump. We met up with Holly here, too. By the time we all had met up and delivered the package I was beyond hungry. So... Instead of going to Pint + Jigger we went to Bubba Gump. Best. Decision. Ever. You're going to have to watch the video on Facebook where I shake my booty for my dessert. But we stayed there for at least 2 hours, talking, laughing, poking fun at each other. It was one of the greatest birthday dinners ever. And our waitress was awesome! She's coming to Seattle for college so we were able to talk shop about that, too. She was very sweet.

After the mall we headed back to drop of the guys... And ended up staying for a movie! We watched Up! And I fell asleep towards the end. But that's alright. After it was over and people started making there way this way and that, I headed out to the lanai (patio) and parked it with a blanket on the couch. I fell asleep outside, 15 stories up. I got to watch sunrise.

(my wake-up view)

And that, friends and family, is how I spent Friday and Saturday morning of my birthday. It took me forever to get this posted by I surely hope it's worth the wait.

Love you, miss you, wish you were here!

Aloha from Oahu,
LC

Friday, April 3, 2015

Recipe -- Quinoa Pizza Crust

Quinoa Pizza Crust

Crust equals 6 Yellow Containers; 3 TSP

Ingredients

3/4 c dry quinoa, soaked overnight
1/4 c water
1 TBS olive oil
1/2 TSP baking soda

Directions

Preheat oven to 425F.
Rinse the quinoa very, very, VERY well. This process should take you more than five minutes.
Combine all ingredients in a blender or Magic Bullet. Blend until it is a smooth as you can make it.
Pour into a parchment paper lined pan -- I used a brownie pan. The parchment will help you when you need to flip it over.
Bake for 15 minutes on one side. Remove from oven, flip, return to pan and return to heat. Bake another 15 minutes. Check the firmness. If it's to your liking, go ahead and top with your favorites. If you think you want it more crispy, stick it back in for another 5 minutes. Check again. I did this and mine was perfect after a total time of 35 minutes in the oven.
After your crust is to your liking, add your favorite toppings.
Return to oven to heat the toppings through and melt the cheese to your liking. You could use the broil option on your oven for this.
Remove from the oven, let cool before cutting. Enjoy!

I let it soak while I was at work. This soaked for at least 12 hours. It nearly doubled... I started with 3/4 c dry and ended with almost 3 cups wet!

Use a fine mesh strainer. I'm thinking I will get a bigger one sometime in the near future so I can double this recipe.

Blend, blend, blend...

... Keep blending!

Close enough.

Sprayed the parchment paper with PAM -- I'm not sure it really needed it though.

Plop your dough in the center and spread it around nice and even.

Almost!

After 15 minutes in the oven, it should look like this.

Flip it!

Put it back in the pan and bake it for another 15 minutes.

Toasty! I stuck mine in for another 5 minutes because it wasn't as crispy as I like my pizza crust.

I topped it with tomato sauce, spinach, each slice got 2 pieces of pepperoni, and I used 2 blue containers of cheese over the top.

Broil until cheese is to your liking.

Let cool and cut it up!

Eat it.

I'm Still Here!

So. I haven't posted since March 1.

Oops.

But that's okay because I'm posting now and that's what matters, right?

Right.

So. What did I do for the month of March? A lot of stuff. I saw a Quidditch practice, got a pedicure, hiked the Aiea Loop Trail and met three awesome hiking buddies, I played tour-guide for the first (and hopefully not last!) time when a girl friend's mom, grandma, and aunt stopped by for an overnight on Oahu, did a fitness hike (and survived!!) up Koko Incline, Skyped with my lovely twin sister, hiked Kaena state park again and had a picnic lunch, spent some time in a Jacuzzi with the hiking buddies, learned about Fascia and why it's important to roll out your body, went to Eat the Street: Japan and had nummy food, and last, but definitely not least... I learned to stand up paddle board.

So. Yeah. That happened.

Now that I've caught my breath for a moment I'm not sure if that was the best month of my life or the most stressful. I guess you'll have to make a decision based on the pictures I'll provide (since my posts wouldn't ever be complete without pictures!).

April is already starting out to be a howler. On March 31 something happened on Oahu which practically shut down the entire island. The ZipMachine broke. What is the Zip Mobile, you ask? It's a machine which lays down barriers to create temporary express lanes on the highways. It's about 17 years old. On Tuesday March 31, 2015, it stopped working. It stalled at the beginning of it's shift and couldn't get started back up. This was bad. I got off work at 4:30PM that day, got on the bus around 4:50PM and didn't get off of the bus until 9:30PM that night. My head hit the pillow at around 10PM and I woke up the next morning at 5AM. One of the ladies on the bus commented saying, "we could be in California by now." Which I totally agreed with since I had learned earlier that week that my Uncle Robert was in Sacramento. The bus driver had to pull over once because several people had bodily functions they needed to attend to. I was not on that list, thank goodness! I was lucky that I had my Kindle and my phone was charged all the way. I would have gone mad without Plants vs. Zombies!

April 1, they had to fly someone in from the mainland with a special chip for the onboard computer. The guy landed around noon, I think, and the ZipMobile was up and running by 3:45PM. My commute home was UNDER an hour and there were eight people on the bus, including the driver. Ah, the simple things in life! Mahalo Mainland Man!

Tonight I plan on going over to one of my new friend's homes. We're going to watch Wild with Reese Witherspoon. I cannot wait! This movie has been on my list since before it was even in theaters! The book was amazing and I'm so excited to see what's in store for the movie. I've only heard good things. After reading the book I was even more inspired to go on the PCT. I hope I still feel that way after the movie.

Tomorrow Holly (one of my hiking buddies and who's home we're turning into a screening room) and I are going to wake up super early and catch sunrise at Pokai Bay, on the West side. This is the same place I learned to SUP. After that, it's pedicures and brunch in the afternoon followed by sunset and a full-moon hike to a lighthouse on the east side.

I love this island more and more every weekend.

I didn't really workout very much in March but I'm back at it in April, full tilt! You'll see my daily workout posts on Facebook. They're not there to say "look what I did! Yay for me and you suck because you're not working out." No. Not at all. They are their because if I make it public knowledge I have people who will actually ask me if I did workout if I don't post something. Then I'll feel guilty and get a workout in. It's for my benefits, not yours, and that's all I have to say about that.

Only 13 more days and one of my best girl friends will be here! Laura will be able to celebrate my birthday with me, which is the best birthday present a twin-who-isn't-near-her-twin-sister can have for her birthday. It'll mean the world to me and I don't think Laura quite knows that yet. But she will when I burst into tears on her at the airport when I pick her up. And then again in the car. And sporadically throughout the week. I'm sure she'll pick it up sometime. ;-)

That's it for this post! Here's some pictures.

Aloha from Oahu
LC