Year of the Rabbit

At the Spring Festival Banquet of the Hawaii Mainland Chinese Overseas Association, Amy Zhang won one of two rabbits celebrating the Year of the Rabbit.

New family addition

Went to visit my sister Sandra and her new baby boy at Kapiolani Women's and Children's Medical Center today.

Dinner with friends

I had dinner with Ruby Mata-Viti and Michelle Ramos at Stage restaurant, where my main course was this salmon.

B3

Torn corner of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Enter the dragon!

At the grand opening celebration of Jade Dynasty restaurant, a dragon graced the property, along with eight lions.

Beach day

This would be a strange sight anywhere but on Kalakaua Avenue.

Mung monster

Driving on Dole Street, spotted this graffiti on a construction site wall in front of the University of Hawaii mens' dormitory, Johnson Hall.

Chocolate bliss

Visited Sweet Paradise Chocolatiers in Kailua for the first time today!

Cute-tees!

T-shirt designer Kayo Master and her family were among the guests at the opening of the Aloha Aina boutique at Royal Hawaiian Center.

Strong ants

A couple of ants try move a safflower shell unhusked by my sun conure.

Rats!

I've been trying to get a photo of this rat for days, and finally got this video still. It keeps a schedule, crossing the telephone wire near our house (yes, this is how they move from house to house) between 6:10 and 6:45 p.m. every day, just before nightfall. After crossing the line, I believe he heads into our neighbor's trash can, which is pretty smelly. I can smell it when I'm working in the yard.

The health aids aren't working.

Remnants of Christmas past at the roadside. This is one of four trees cast out as garbage, that I saw today. Shot from my car en route to work. The others were on Queen Street.

2Couture designers Takeo and Eric Chandler hosted a crazy New Year tea party that had newscaster Pamela Young floored by Iwalani Tseu's tale of her love life.

Temperature got down to 64 degrees today, glove-wearing weather.

Taizo Braden of Hawaii New Now was game as the second subject for my story on men's makeovers. This is his stodgy before. Results will be in the newspaper Jan. 13.

A 21Men makeover of Star-Advertiser writer Gary Chun, who typically only wears graphic tees, the same style he's had since the '80s. He wanted to look more like an adult.

Harvesting dime-size tomatoes from my sustainable-four-days-a-year garden.

This tree root at the Waterfront Towers looks like a komodo dragon or other reptilian creature.

At DFS's inaugural Aloha Nights block party on Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki, Morimoto restaurant was offering a foie gras chawan mushi. Oishi!

Spent the day off making the trek to Waikele Premium Outlets, where I tried on this Prada jacket, from spring 2010. Didn't get it, though.

Happy New Year!