Sick, sick and sick

For those that are not my mom and actually follow this goofy blog, I'm sorry I've been neglecting you all! Truth is, I've been under the weather which is weird. I thought wee-gans NEVER get sick or under the weather! Clearly, I got it from something.....or SOMEONE! HA!

Okay but really, I'll blog tomorrow when I'm back home earlier. For now, I can't even ride Evelyn hard =(

Wards Ferry RR

So this past weekend, I raced in the Wards Ferry RR all the way out in Tuolumne, CA! For those that don't know, that's in Yosemite which is like 2.5 hours from Oakland. Hells bells that's far! Safe to say Friday was a quiet night and even my dad spared me and turned off CNN early. Of course, it doesn't help when you got Paul Mooney doing standup on HBO but you get the idea. =)

Anyways, got my fat ass up @ 3:30am (!!) and was picked up by a team mate and we trekked out to Wards Ferry. And the whole time it was talking and all I wanted to do was sleep. A few hours later, we get there and it's ass cold. Like 38 degrees. Fk me. I'm in leg warmers, gloves and arm warmers. Not surprisingly, so is everyone else.

Race begins @ 8:09 and the first lap is somewhat quick. We dropped folks halfway through and then on the climbs, I saw many laboring away, breathing deeply, long and hard [tee hee]. About 1/4 way into lap 2, I drop the chain completely. The fker is wrapped around my crank arm! I stop and fix it and takes like 4 minutes. Of course, the rest of the field passes me by and I hop on my bike only to drop that shit again. Bam, another 4 minutes. By now, I'm pissed. I take off the arm warmers, leg warmers and pound some vegan electrolyte drink. For the next 40-odd miles, I have my head down and I'm in the pain cave. Insane watts were thrown down. In the end, I cought 14 people in my race and finished 15th. BAM! Not a top 10 or any points but holy shit, that was the most gratifying 15th place I've had in a long time.

I also put my breakfast of champions above. You'll see 2 bananas, truth is, it's normally 3-4. A Whole Soy Mixed berry yogurt, an ezekiel english muffin with cinammon and raisin and a vegan clif bar. Normally, this is a cashew cookie LaraBar but eh....this was what was left in the pantry. Also not pictured is a tall glass of FRESH and organic OJ. Not made from concentrate or shit like that. Just fresh squeezed OJ. Oh yeah son. And for shits and giggles, I'll put almond butter on the muffin if I'm truly feeling like a fatty =)

Also pictured is what was bought today at the Berkeley Bowl [equivalent to Whole Foods]. Stevia sweetened "soda", soy yogurt, bananas good for 3 days, frozen cherries, spinach, apples, oranges, VEGAN AGAVE SWEETENED GUMMI BEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, fresh OJ, blackberries, blueberries, Amy's all veggie wee-gan pizza, arrabiatta sauce for pasta and some english muffins [sprouted ezekiel and barley....vegan, of course].

Whew, that was a mouthful. Only one thing left to do now: watch family guy.

Green Smoothies + Cascada?

My other vegan [wee-gan] cyclist friend's recipe was nothing short of inspirational and I put my foot down and vowed to try it this weekend. To recap it was the following:

1) Spinach

2) Almond Milk

3) Macha powder - cuz I need that stamina ya know. ;-)

4) Frozen cherries. Personally, I'm thinking like half the damn bag. Figure the bag costs what, $3....eh....I can afford that.

Cherries, what a new [old] concept for green smoothies. I'm going to try a new one this weekend too although this bad boy is going to be all fruit. What about.....

1) 1 peach

2) heaping handful of strawberries

3) 1 banana

4) 1/2 cup of vanilla soymilk or water

Try before me and I'll go over to your house and make out with you. =) Okay but seriously, you get the idea! And now on to my second topic, Cascada. Who? What? When? Where? Why?

For those who don't know, Cascada is essentially the Brit version of Lady GaGa. And while I don't think she's as sexy as Lady GaGa - primarily because she has yet to make a song about yours truly, Ale-ale-jandro - she is one HEALTHY and good-looking Brit! She even has straight teeth too! Okay, bad joke, bad joke. Sorry to all my Brit readers.

Put it to ya like this. When I was studying Economics at the London School of Economics - cuz what else would you study?! - I saw very few dentists. Just a lot of pork and beans.

Tomorrow, I'll show you what I've been consuming for the past umpteen days for breakfast. And it's so friggin good too. Until then, try that green smoothie before me and be sure to put on your makeup. Except if your name is Mitch. Then....gross.

Interval-ing-ing-ing-ing-ing-ing

Yes today's workload was intense. With respect to the 'suffer-scale', I'd rate it at an 8 [8 = tolerable pain, 9 = misery OH misery, 10 = dead]. It started off with 2 x 8 minute intervals at a high target, x > 320 watts. And with intervals on the bike, it's not hit 320 watts and hold it...nah, it's like go over 400 watts hold that for a bit, then hold 280 watts for a bit and repeat that beezy a bunch of times till you're cross-eyed.

And just when you thought it was over.....3 x 12 minute hill repeats at x > 310 watts. Safe to say that intervaling was so intense, these hill repeats seemed like joy rides. Coolest part about intervaling on the trainer is that people who walk by get to see how bad-ass you look. You're just out there, big, ugly pain face on, shaven legs and dripping sweat. Sexy? You betcha. Well, at least to me....and your sister and your cousin ;-)

And after all that nonsense is over, it's such a relief to sit down to some wee-gan risotto and a big ass vegan italian sandwich. Each time I get a sandwich, I have fond memories of Chappelle's show where Dave is playing P.Diddy on his version of "Making the Band". He looks at Fonsworth and is like "Fonsworth! Make me sandwich!". Yeah that one was money.

In other important news, I'm really, REALLY getting into sweet and juicy fruits instead of the all functional banana. Make no mistake, I still AND WILL CONTINUE to consume bananas by the hand each day, but there's no denying my newfound love for oranges, fresh squeezed orange juice, crunchy COLD apples and grapes. I consider grapes the ultimate snack food, next to LaraBars of course [don't buy the coconut creme pie one though....a woman I know is going to kill me....].

Trying to think of a good green smoothie creation but am drawing a blank on what would mix well without being too 'Jamba-Juice-ish'. Oh, and on that note, Jamba has this 'all-fruit' drink that's like a 'suicide' of fruit [the original 'suicide' was you put your cup under each soda and make a shmorgesboard of carbonated sugar water crap ish thingie]. It's good every frozen fruit out there which begs the question....why add more ice at the end? Make it coldER?!

Alrighty, the Lakers are on TV and that means one thing: Taunting my dad because they [the Lakers] are losing and my dad is a huge Laker fan.

Contemplating bike-induced death? =)

Pain, suffering and misery. Normally, these are the emotions I feel when walking into old meetings when I used to work at the bank. That, or an unexpected trip to New Jersey =)

Nowadays, I think of these adjectives in a wonderful way through squinting eyes of a [vegan] dude on his bike. That or an intense run. And though I'm a bike guy, I still appreciate the thorough ass whopping one can achieve doing intervals on the bike or on the track. Either way, if the HR isn't going over 180 bpm, safe to say you got more in the tank. Let's pick up the pace Nancy.

However, I recognize the need for music and how influential it is over me and my emotions. As such, here is what I am listening to now [and listened to today while suffering on the bike]. Be forewarned though, if you dont like pounding to dance/trance music, go ahead and scroll down to another post.
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FORMAT: Artist - Song.
Deadmau5 - Strobe. Michael Woo remix
Give it all away - DJ Rap
John O'Callaghan - Out of nowhere
Ashes and Lashes - Dub Mechanics [really, really suffer on this one!]
AcquaFix - Drunken Stars
Stand to Lose - Kyven
I Will be Here - Tiesto
Armin Van Burren - Broken Tonight

Try that on for size. In the words of the dude on the commercial:
"You're going to like the way you like. I guarntee it."

Yet again, another post on vegan pizza...

Now look at that handsome, tall, [slightly] sun-kissed man. Tell me that doesn't look damn good! That is called the 'smiling cow' pizza and is made with gluten-free bread, soy 'teese' [it melts!], soyrizo, pepperoni and onions. In total 12 slices. Alex consumed 10. Safe to say, I replaced all those missing calories that I burned on Sunday =)

My dad is going towards vegetarianism which is awesome. I took this photo of him slurping his kale, potato and soyrizo soup. The verdict: He'll come back. And thank heaven for that. The owner is this kind, bald-headed italian bloke whose name I've decided is 'Antonio'. Chances are high that I'm wrong but well, what can you say except the man makes a damn good pizza. He knows our family, and I know his pizza chefs =)

In other news, the weather it seems is perfect for cycling. And if today wasn't a rest day, my fat ass would be outside, pounding to some solid music fit for climbing. Which brings me to my post tomorrow. A lot of you have been asking for a playlist of what Alex listens to when he's out throttling himself on Evelyn. Wish granted. Tomorrow, the blog post will be dedicted to a playlist inspired by young hova. =)

And until then, that's the vegan risotta. Wow. Super good. Cream is the unsweetened cashew creme substitute. Mama mia, santeria, lotteria [like the game!].

p.s. heard the dopest italian last name today: Pietropoli.

Hay-sus maria!

Welcome Back Dad!

Yesterday, my dad came back from a 3-week 'staycation' in NYC, the land of sex, scandals, bad food and worse transporation. =) I mean, where are there hills to cycle?! Oh wait, that's right, that place is called Connecticut. Whoopsie.

Nonetheless, he came back to nice California weather dressed in a down jacket, a scarf and his snow shoes. It reminds me of myself but the opposite [goofy Hawaiian kid with little clothing on]. We picked him up at night but before, mom and I killed some time at borders and you wouldn't believe the book we stumbled on! Take a look at that gem! 'Stuff that White People Like'. Now tell me that doesn't scream class all over it?!

Today was once again beautiful. My mom joined me for lunch and we went to this middle eastern place followed by a hefty italian sandwich. Let's face it, they LOVE me wherever I go. I high-five the mail man, high five the lady at the middle eastern store, high five my mom, Emily's mom, your mom and your cousin's mom. =) Hot diggity damn, that was some good eating. And what did I get for dinner tonite? The same mutafu*kin sandwich! God damn that sh*t is good! What you're seeing there is a vegan roll followed by sundried tomato, artichoke hearts, roasted red bell peppers, eggplant, kale salad, baby greens, tomatoes with a nice spread of fire roasted red bell peppers. Ummm....I'll take another?!

Weather is finally looking up!

Currently, as I sit typing this blogpost in my compression tights - cuz I'm real smooth like that - it's 72 degrees in the house and my mom is complaining of the heat. Little does she know that 72 degrees is par for the course in Hawaii. Sigh.....remind me, why did I move? Oh wait, that's right, I got laid off along with 25% of the staff. Gotcha. ;-)

But hey, things are much better now in some respects. And finally, the weather outside is looking up. For the first time in months, I went outside and and cycled for a good hour. This of course, is after the hour long pain-fest in the AM. Not surprisingly, I saw many other cyclists out on the road, a sight that if you lived in Hawaii, would be RARE. However, California lacks on key element: bikini-clad-surf-board-toting-babes =) hehe, so shoot me.

I'll give you a moment to let that sink in and un-expand the photo.
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Back? Good. That was fast. That's what she....oh wait, that wouldn't be good. I took some pretty nice pics of downtown SF that I'll post tomorrow. The weather has been perfect! For lunch, I typically go on a long walk starting at the Embarcadero and go to Pier 39 [about a 2.5 mile walk, 5 miles total]. Tell ya what, eat a meal, then walk....man, you don't feel weighed down at all. Intervals after eating? Not so much. TAKE IT FROM ME.

In addition to thinking about my PM workout, I'm currently watching Iron Chef - the REAL one imported from Japan. The secret ingredient is pork. Hmm....what's that taste like again? Honestly, I haven't had one single craving for meat/dairy/eggs in so long it's crazy. I'm kind of immune to the lure of meat and honestly, the scent would probably gross me out a bit. Nonetheless, I recognize that Mike and Kenji will continue to poke fun of me as a result of my diet. Must be easy to say when you're recoving from a torn MCL =)

Risotto alla Zagorski

Wish I had some photos of this one to show but truth is....I ate the whole damn thing. That's 1.5 cups of brown arborreo rice [along with other vegan goodness which I'll get into later]. This recipe was inspired by the flying Scotsman aka Senor Z aka 'Damnit Mike' aka Mike Z. He frequently makes these risotto-thingies that I have just tried.

Let's get the big line out of the way: It is no surprise that Alex and his vegan risotto, are quite fond of one another.

So anyways, he would tell me risotto is a cyclists best friend. Here are directions:
2 leeks, cut stems, slice thin.
1 bag enoki mushrooms
1 bag of mixed mushrooms [not to be confused with 'shrooms'!]
4 bell peppers
1 Okinawan sweet potato [these puppies are purple]
Garlic
Edamame
Brown arborreo rice
Cashew creme [to make it creamy, of course]
2.5 cups of vegetable or mushroom stock to flavor rice
1 tbsp Toasted sesame oil
2 tbsp nama shoyu

Throw all that in your rice cooker. Press on and sit fat ass down on chair. When beeping noise is heard, keep lid on rice! 5 mins later, add some more cashew creme to achieve desired creaminess and you're done. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am.

Wish I could show you photos, but you probably dont wanna see now. =)
Gross.

Vegan Fast Food @ NatureExpress

Admit it, after a 6 hour ride and not coming my faux hawk, I look like a 'Josh' or 'Zach'.

It's a [Vegan] FastFood Nation.

You're damn straight.

This weekend featured some epic bike rides and lots of calories burned. That translates to numerous vegan burritos, splendidos, soyrizos, and choco-chinos [what are those?]. Mama Tellez and I made a weekend of it and went to Solano Ave and pigged out on some NatureExpress.

For those of you flat-footed dweebs that don't know [hehe, you LOVE it!] about NatureExpress it's a fast food wee-gan place. They serve up green smoothies, vegan donuts [ghea!], vegan burritos, vegan burgers and all around general goodness everywhere. Bottom line: I LOVE THAT PLACE. More than your cousins house....and you all know how much I love your cousins house huh? ;-)

The pics above include a pair of Southwestern Burgers [veganaise-thyme sauce, tomato, avocado, romaine, boca burger served on whole wheat foaccia bread] and 'The Works' burrito which has lime-pesto sauce, soyrizo, rice pilaf and some spicy 'coleslaw'. Wash that down with wicked good lemonade [sweetened with Agave no less] and you've got lunch. Holy crap that was good. Combine that lunch with awesome Bay Area weather [75 degrees and sunny] and some Thai food for dinner = Awesome Saturday.

Sunday was another solid ride in the bike. That V02 keeps getting upped as well. Goodness gracious. Now, if only I don't have flat tires in bike races....

Hawaii Part 4 - Two bottles of Opus One and the End

First off, sorry for the delay in part 4. Long day at work yesterday. Went home, cycled, showered, shaved and then passed out. Good night, good fight. Today was different and hence the blog post. Let's get started.

On our last day, Mike and I went to Ala Moana mall in Hawaii - perhaps Hawaii's biggest mall and my favorite place to sit with dark Oakley sunglasses and "people watch" err....yeah, you get the idea. Anyways, along the way we ran into the coi pond which is dope and Mike got to witness some keiki [Hawaiian for 'children'] doing some Hula as pictured above. Some difficult stuff - I'll stick to cycling!

Another pic is of my good friend Mike. Basically, I owe my passion for cycling and my current skill - lack thereof really - to him. Without his help and patience [he knows I descend hills like Sam Choy on roller skates!] I guarantee you, I would not be where I am in cycling [which aint much but eh...half a year into it, give me some time]. I took that photo of him [taking a photo of me] the day of the tsunami. That's all 150 lbs of that Scottish Hawaiian. Don't say he's English. And no, he doesn't golf.

There's another pic of Mike and my good friend Dr. Alex Silver. Quite possibly one of the nicest human beings I've EVER met. Seriously. We met at the Honolulu Club and since then our friendship has grown. Though he drinks some pretty weak shit as far as beer goes, don't let the looks fool you. This guy knows his WINE. And by 'knows' I mean he has amassed an enormous wine collection [for which I'm grateful...for which....for.....heheh, inside joke] that I tried to drink one night.

Hence, the two bottles of opus one. Safe to say we didn't fly that night and the next day was geared towards recovery. Lots of gatorade, bananas and Thai food. Not shabby huh! And so there's Hawaii in a few days. Hope you liked it. I'll be going back soon! Until then, you'll just have to put up or shut up with my vegan [weeeegan] rants.

Aloha,

Mike and Alex [no, we're not a couple.....]

Tsunami Watch 2k10 [Cont'd]

As if one tsunami watch wasn't enough, here's the rest of tsunami watch 2k10 as written by Condeleeza McSqueeza himself, Mike C. Man, that guy is doofy.

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11:45am - Alex, now emaciated from lack of food....oh wait, that's normal! Grunts as he climbs up on a poolside table. Since he's turned sideways, I can barely see him. A shudder of fear overcomes me at the thought that the slight gust of wind perchance might sweep my friend and host from his precarious pool-side perch. I take a picture to capture his tsnuami watch stance. I snap a second photo [see previous blog post, Alex with green short shorts] as the first one turned out to be ummm....taken at a poor angle. I now know who the song "who wears the short shorts" is referring to.....shudder.

ALEX'S RESPONSE: You douchebag.

12:05pm a.k.a. almost an hour past when the tsunami was supposed to happen, the live twitter feed is overflowing with reports that the tsunami has just reached the big island. I watch the waves in the distance....They are starting to look a little choppy. The streets are nearly deserted. Alex continues to complain about how hungry he is....he's nearly on the verge of tears that subway is closed from the evacuation.

12:15pm - I wonder if I managed to miss the tsunami. No destruction. No power outages. No epic walls of water washing its way down Waikiki. I am seriously underwhelmed. I feel bad the second time for not realizing that I was actually looking forward to something catastrophic. I mean....I didn't want anyone hurt. I certainly didn't want people to have to go through the trouble dealing with the damage such a wave would cause; but, I thought that there would at least be SOMETHING. I was worried about a 13 ft wave traveling 500 mph; we got a 1.5 inch wave that might have stirred some fish around. In this case, the motion of that ocean didn't thrill me. I'm glad.

ALEX'S NOTE: Is that a song?

1pm - We exit the building. Alex needs food, as I've so often told him.

ALEX'S NOTE: See first note.

I ponder the annoyance of the loud tsunami warning sirens that punctuated my morning and kept me off the beach. I decide that it's better safe than sorry. Everyone is complaining about the evacuation on the radio, but hindsight is 20:20. Nobody would be laughing if that wave actually hit us....and that woman on the radio would not have been so sorry to miss her Starbucks.

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Stay tuned, the epic finale of Hawaii Part 4 up next. Until then, good night Canada, let's toss it back up to Sportscenter.

Hawaii Continues Tmmr

Reason why we stopped was
a) It was the weekend
b) That's Flemish for "I'm going on a cycling gastro tour for Vegan Burritos"
c) Betcha didn't know I could speak Flemish huh?
d) I need to steal some more photos of Mike's facebook page.

Once I do d), then we'll get back with Tsunami Watch 2k10.
Oh and by the way, Amy's Soy Cheese Vegan Pizza <<<<<< Amy's Pesto Gluten Free pizza.

In fact, that pizza [soy cheese] was absolute shit. If it were me, I'd put it on fail blog.
Oh and I'm onto this really, really good granola right now. It's 'creamy' [soy protein powder] blueberry, raspberry, grape, banana granola. Whoa it's good. So good makes you wanna slap yo mama! Will get to that too.

Hawaii Part 3 - Tsunami Watch 2k10

The highly anticipated blog post, Tsunami Watch 2k10 is rolling in straight sets [no pun intended]. Alex would like to take this time now to say this ENTIRE blog post has been written by Micahel which means the following:

1) It's probably not true

2) Well....some of it is.....

3) ....and some of it is darn right jealousy! =) He's sitting there now thinking "damn, those vegans sure do eat well." Damn straight we do. And don't you forget it.

4) Re-read 1)

Let's give a big Hawaiian sized welcome for the tomfoolery that is known as Mike's Writing:

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*************** HOLY SHIT************* you can't copy and paste into blogspot!!!! AAAHHHH

Okay here's part 1. Part two tomorrow so you'll just have to wait.

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9am: I'm showered and listening to the radio for reports on the tsunami. Alex is out biking for the umpteenth time this vacation. I know that when he returns, I'll have to listen to the painful but oddly melodic, metronome of his grunts as he walks, if it can be called walking, on those skinny chicken bones he calls legs [21 miles running after 2 months of no running = oww]: oooO aaaAH oooO aaaAH. I can already picture the: "I had an unpleasant meeting with the business end of a broomhandle" stance he'll have upon his return. I heat up some ramen.

9:30am: The radio commentators drone on about the, then expected 6 - 13 ft waves traveling Hilo side of Hawaii traveling at speeds of 500mph! All coastal areas are evacuated, and people in high rise buildings are urged to go to higher levels. Sitting peacefully in Alex's 6th floor condo, I laugh as a commentator takes a call from a woman that is complaining about Starbuck's being closed: "seriously ma'am, there's a tsunami, and you're concerned about your Starbuck's fix?"

9:40am: Alex texts me me to meet him at Jamba Juice....which is even closer to the beach. I tell him he's crazy if he thinks I'm going CLOSER to the beach before the tsunami. Jamba Juice is closed btw.

10:30am: The boy wonder returns....oooO aaAH oooO aaAH....there it is. He's starving....well, more than usual! Ha! Stupid Weee-gan!

10:45am: We evacuate to our rooftop pool to begin.......TSUNAMI WATCH 2K10!

11:09am: The tsunami is supposed to come....it's late.

11:25am: Talk to mom on the phone while sunbathing and drinking a cold Corona [see pic]. She's freaked out but I tell her I'm fine....I'm more than fine, I'm actually ENJOYING tsunami watch! Then I feel bad. I shouldn't be enjoying waiting for a tsunami. People in Chile died during the tsunami there....BAD MICHAEL!

11:30am: Still no tsunami. Live twitter feed tells me that "even our natural disasters our are on island time!"

Hawaii Part Deux - [More] Eating

Continuing with the double-blog-duty post, this particular one shows one of Alex's favorite places to eat. It's actually a grocery store that ONLY serves vegetarian and vegan foods. In fact, when you sit outside, a sign says "No meat products or outside food". Of course, I'm skeptical but Alex tells me they have outstanding gluten free pizza. What I can't wrap my hands around is where do all of those calories go in him? I swear, that pip-squeek eats and eats and eats a truckload of calories and yet, he's still thin with his faux hawk and skinny tshirts. Heck, I eat a salad and my thighs jiggle for a week! Whoops...tmi...tmi. Fest your eyes on Down to Earth foods ladies and gents, an establishment that will never see Anthony Bourdain make a visit to.

Anyways, we eat an outstanding meal [can you tell, this is clearly Alex]. I pig out on TWO slices of vegan pizza [gotta be like 500 cals each!], AND some brown rice and thai coconut curry. Kapow! That's my daily quota? Hardly. That's lunch suckaaaaaz. Of course, I explain to Michael that spam and other such crap products cannot be found at such a clean, respectable, and socially responsible establishment. However, I tell him that there's a Burger King across the street but also that this gluten free pesto pizza loaded with veggies will be good. He listens. Smart kid. We sit down and he stuffs his face and you'd swear, the kid had never heard of veggies in his life. It's like, you could smack him in the grill with a cauliflower and he'd be like 'word?'. Hehe, nah I'm just playing, apparently, he enjoys fruits and vegetables.......and spam.....and fried chicken......and steak.....[going to get carried away].

Next we took some pictures from Diamond Head view point overlooking the pacific. Man it's pretty up there and wouldn't you know it, Alex struck pay-dirt and found ----- an awesome photo. NOT a bikini-clad-surf-board-toting-model, but certainly a wonderful shot indeed. I doubt she knew though, tough to tell whose snapping a photo when the photographer is all legs and no arms. I swear, if Alex turns to the side, you can hardly see his upper body and only his legs show. Thank god he's cycling and eating more. If he loses any more weight he would just float away and away and away and away......

We hope you've enjoyed this doofy post. We decided to dedicate a FULL BLOG to tsunami watch 2k10 which will be tomorrow.

p.s. doesn't Alex look like a young boy in these photos? 12...or maybe 13?!

Alex's response: Don't hate. Veganism and Cycling keep me a yung lookin' brotha. AND I got nice legs!

Hawaii Part 1: The 'dual-post'

Aloha you poor souls putting up with cold and miserable weather. Oh wait....that's us huh? Cuz right now in SF it's raining, cold and dark - adjectives that would normally describe our personality....at least Alex's =)

Yes indeed, this is a blog post by Michael and Alex...we would say M&A but two reasons prevent this:

1) M&A stands for mergers and acquisitions
2) Sounds a little limp-wristy. Heck, it's bad enough Alex shaves his legs and is vegan.

Anyways, time to write in the third person! Alex's trip was on time while Mike's was delayed like a mother due to some shotty plane technicians. Heh...maybe that's a good thing though ya? Nonetheless we both made it to Hawaii on Wednesday night. Weather: a 'balmy' 72 degrees. BRRRRR. Thank god we wore our overcoats.

We spent the better part of day 1 walking around magic island and recalling witty family guy lines. Our personal favorite said by Mr. Peter Griffin:

"Excuse me sir, is your fridge on? Because if it is it probably runs a lot like you do.....very homosexually." Honestly, this makes no sense whatsoever but we had to laugh.

Mike - being the NON-vegan - decides to try some of the local fare. Of course, Alex cannot persuade him that Hawaiian papayas and Thai bananas are his crack so instead, he partakes in spam [puke], fried chicken [again] , and hot dog [one more time for good measure]. Oh and dig this, he had that almost daily! [but where does it all go?!]

The wather was clear and the breeze refreshing. 80 degree weather in February. Whew. Can't beat that huh. Anyways, feast your eyes on the natural beauty that is Oahu, Hawaii. Stay tuned for part deux.