2025 Jan 25 | south Waikiki grocery stores, Ogii in Monterey and Gardena

Ogii made breakfast.

I wanted a mini fan to help keep my laptop cool in the afternoon, but I couldn't find many. Walmart had one in the camping section that might work.

Also some air in a can to blow the dust off the laptop fans.

I was walking through Saks Off 5th and checked out their final sale rack.

These are a little large for me, but they would fit Tsogt.

And they're super cheap, especially for Saks Off 5th, so I had Tsogt and Naraa look at them. They liked them, so they bought them.

This new restaurant has been going up over the past month or so. I first noticed when they did some landscaping, then some outside painting. Now they have some chairs inside.

It's going to be a Mexican restaurant. Those generally aren't very good in this area, but we'll see.

Ogii had dropped her phone and the screen stopped working, so I went to a phone repair shop to see if they could replace the screen. This one at the International Marketplace didn't have her screen, but they called around and the one in the Kahala Mall did.

So I drove over there and dropped off her phone.

It would take a few hours, so I wandered around the mall. There is a Lenscrafters here, and directly across from it, and ad for another optometry office.

Kahala Eye Clinic. Which isn't in the mall building, but it's in the office tower across a parking lot.

In here.

There are many different offices.

There is Kahala Eye Clinic. Also many dentists here.

Dane Sultzer is the optometrist.

There's another optometrist in another office, Franklin Lau.

Which is over in this section.

More new laptop stuff. Windows 11 tends to have the scroll bars go away or get really small when you're not using them, which I don't like. But you can turn that off.

Uh oh, our cheese is bad.

We hadn't even opened it, and the expiration date isn't for another month, so I wonder why it went bad so soon.

Tsogt opening a coconut.

Pouring out the milk.

Ready to eat.

Why did Ogii tear her desk apart?

This tiny little cockroach, which I tossed out the window.

The toilet had been running a bit. Some WD-40 on the handle fixed it for a while, but then only jiggling the flapper would help. Once that needed to be done more often, a new flapper was an easy fix.

Naraa made dumplings for dinner.

We were checking the cost of mailing some boxes to Mongolia. Some people use DHL.

But that's nearly $1000, even for a smaller box, whereas USPS is around $150, and should get there within a week.

Another breakfast.

Tsogt and Naraa are flying to California for a few weeks.

I noticed something in the background of the Silicon Valley show.

A Mystery Spot sticker from Santa Cruz. They really stand out.

I went to Chubbies Burgers for lunch. They're supposed to be really good, and there was a bit of a line.

And that was just waiting for take-out; it was full inside.

It was decent, although $50 for a couple of burgers, fries, and drinks.

Shiny paint job.

Friday night fireworks are starting.

We better run out and watch.

Some people are watching from this rooftop pool.

Aloha Amigo is open. Although it has a long line on a Saturday night, so we can check it out later.

Bob Uecker died.

So we have to watch Major League.

An orange Tacoma.

Ogii also is flying to California, but for work.

When I used to go away for a week for work, I'd leave chocolates hidden around the house for Ogii to find every day. Now she did the same for me.

Her hotel in Monterey.

Another chocolate for me the next day.

I like the punch-out moustache the Screamin' Sicilian pizzas have.

One of my photographs at Ogii's office in Monterey.

Ogii needs to drive this trailer from her work down to Los Angeles.

The original plan was to rent a U-Haul truck to drive it, but they didn't have the right size hitch ball, so she has to drive someone else's truck instead.

Duke's Lane Market is by the International Marketplace.

Inside.

There's a bakery.

Cakes.

Charcoal pancake mix.

Spam musubi and malasadas.

Tourist stuff in the back.

Not a full supermarket, but a few necessities.

Google said there was another grocery store over here, but this isn't it.

This is going to be a steak house.

They're still working on the inside.

Ah, I went a bit too far. The grocery store is actually on the second floor here.

It's not advertised very well on the ground floor.

Malasadas.

Fresh food.

Poke bar, like at Foodland.

Breakfast plates.

Create your own parfait.

Bakery.

Fruit.

Meat.

Local snacks.

Walking back home.

The piano has a cover.

Aw, it's due to a noise complaint.

Meanwhile, Ogii was having lunch in Carmel Valley with a coworker.

And then she stopped by Rombi Wine.

To pick up her favorite variety: his 2016 Cabernet, which has a smokey flavor due to the smoke from the Soberanes fire that year. He normally isn't open this day, but he had a doctor's appointment that morning, so he stopped by and opened just for Ogii.

I went to this building...

... for my CRP training, which needs to be renewed every two years.

It went fast and easily, since most of us attending had done it before.

There are many other offices there.

Including one optometrist, Vernon Shibata.

I saw this guy on the drive home. The marks from a cupping massage caught my eye, but then I noticed his phone. He's wearing athletic shorts, so it can't be that secure, right? Isn't he worried about it falling and someone running it over?

Stopping by the local public library. With a free library card, you can access the New York Times for free.

They had a few chess boards set up.

They have a meeting once a month.

And also a weekly beginner's class at another location.

Meanwhile, Ogii was driving from Monterey to Los Angeles. We normally take 46 from 101 to 5, since it's fairly straight and four lanes, but for some reason, Google Maps had her take 198 instead, which is more winding and only two lanes. I took this road a few times, and I didn't like it even in a Prius. Ogii was driving a truck with a trailer.

She passed by Pleasant Valley State Prison.

And then, right as she was about to get to the Grapevine, the pass through the mountains on I-5 right before you get to Los Angeles, the highway was closed due to a fire.

So she had to drive back up north, then go west to Paso Robles, south through Santa Barbara, and then east to Los Angeles. She was originally supposed to arrive at 6pm and didn't actually arrive until 11pm.