Media maven Pam Davis wanted to check out a party at Hank’s Haute Dogs first, which made for a good start. Pam’s a great party partner as she is game for everything and knows everyone, so flowing from a parking lot BBQ to a cocktail party is pretty seamless.

Speaking of seamless! We walked in to the Harbor Court Bistro, and it was as if Palomino had never left. Same decor, same layout, even the same staff. It’s not a bad thing, but you almost don’t know if you should call it by its new or old name.

One thing Palomino did not have was a club concept. So the bar area is packed, but there is a DJ in the back. The restaurant area is less packed, but there is a DJ there also. The crowd flows back and forth between the two areas, and as you can see, dancing is encouraged in both.

I usually say that I’m too old for this kind of scene, but Daryl has a great way of mixing up the demographics so that you don’t feel too uncomfortable, no matter what your age. It kind of reminded me of the old Studebaker’s crowd, except now I’m at the older end of the spectrum (trying to protect Jennifer from the old dudes desperately trying to give her their business cards). The music is pretty good, too.

Oh, who am I kidding? I am too old for this! It took me the whole weekend to recover. Good thing it was a long weekend! Anyway, thought I’d start the blog back up with a fun look at my weekend.

p.s. None of the Hawaii bloggers made www.hotbloggercalendar.com. As you can see by my photos, the voters were sorely mistaken! Well, there’s always next year.

p.p.s. Funny that I ran into my cousin Marc at the party. I told him that his parents, then his sister Kristen, have been featured in my blog. Someone let Marc know how to find me, willya?

You see, there is a movement by two gals named Sarah Morgan and Jane Couto Poricelli, who are searching for the hottest bloggers on the web. Blog readers choose who they want to read, but now they can choose who they want to look at all year round. You can read more about this at www.hotbloggercalendar.com.

The important thing for YOU to know, dear reader, is that three Hawaii bloggers (that we know of) made the ballot: Christa Wittmier, Nathan Kam, and Melissa Chang. You can log on to www.hotbloggercalendar.com from now till September 1 and cast your vote. Now that the Olympics and the Little League World Series are done, you have something else to do that promotes Hawaii!

You can vote on bloggers you deem hot, whether because of the person’s looks, writing, humor, personality, community impact, or any combination.

I’m a little old for this, but am happy to vote for my colleagues. So if you don’t hear from me for a while, it’s because I’m busy finagling multiple votes for Christa and Nathan!

(Most people who see this don’t recognize the girl on the right. That’s Denise Mizumoto.)

Get us whatever you can! You never know what memories you might unlock. While cleaning at my mom’s, I accidentally found a box that had a ton of photos from high school, including some obscure moments that people had forgotten about. I pulled out this seemingly-nondescript photo of me and LiSa (Kaneshiro) Chang cooking that summer at the Waikiki Banyan for our graduation party. While looking at it, I described every major detail leading up to this moment (excessive partying) and what happened after (hurling outside by my then-boyfriend, just missing his feet). Most people are shocked that I remember it all so vividly. How about you?  Do you have any old photos that suddenly take you back 25 years, as if it happened yesterday?

If you have photos for Daniel, please send them in. If you want to sign up for the reunion AND get your goodie bag, you have until the end of August. For more information, click here or email mhs83reunion@hotmail.com .

See you at the reunion in October!

I know I’m old because I can’t stay out all night anymore, go home to shower, get an hour’s worth of sleep and report to work on time with the same make up from the night before. That glam blogger persona that Jennifer is impressed with is just a facade! Here’s how I spent my Wednesday:

First Cheryl Tsutsumi invited me to the launch of her latest book, “New Wave Mai Tais” at Planet Hollywood. It was from 5 to 8 p.m., a reasonable time for the after-work crowd. Even if you don’t drink Mai Tais, these make great gifts!

So that was going to be my exciting Wednesday.

Then the Metromix team said they had an event at Level 4 starting at 10 p.m., I thought, “Are you kidding me?! Who goes out that late on a Wednesday night?”  But Jennifer & Alex wanted to see how fabulous bloggers live, so off we went.

People following me on Twitter all knew that I was angsting about what to wear. Jeans or no jeans? Am I too old for this? Bloggarazzi Christa Wittmier (at right) advised me to just wear black, the Universal Clubwear for Men & Women. As you can see, we also threw in cleavage, which is always in fashion. (Necklace courtesy of Precious Boutique in Aloha Tower Marketplace.)

Daniel Lutz, AC Shilton and Eldon Miura showed us a great time. I was really only going to stay a little while, but all these other flacks like Amy Hennessey, Toby Tamaye, and Matt Derby were there so that added to the fun, and of course we had to dish and catch up. It was also nice to run into Britney from Hooters, who still remembered me even though I had not seen her in about a year. We all stayed for the hair show at midnight put on by iCandi and Salon Blanc, who did our First Fashion Friday show.

Check these photos–it’s just a sample to show you that people are, indeed, going out on weeknights in Honolulu and it’s not just the tourists! It was encouraging to see this, despite it being at a competitor’s property.

By the end of the night, as you can see, Alex “traded up.” Jennifer and I were replaced by some ladies at another publication. (I wonder if they know he wasn’t really Matthew McConnaughey?)

Anyway, just wanted to share some cool shots of a Wednesday night out. Big mahalo to Cheryl Tsutsumi, as well as the Metromix team for a nice time! We’re all at work today!!

Since I live AND work in the Ala Moana/Kakaako district, the mileage is so low that people make fun of me.  Whatever! Just wait till I try to sell it! 6980 miles, baby! (Currently appraised by the blue book at $2270 more than I paid for it.)

Well, in the meantime, I went berserk shopping at Ang Namsilk. Their manager, Nina Chang (no relation) brought out a whole CASE of what looked like pearl necklaces, but were actually bra straps.

Cool concept: if you own a bra that enables you to swap out the straps, you can replace them with these baubly accessories.  Many of my girlfriends are like, “Doesn’t it make your clothes lumpy?” NO. These straps should be used when you are wearing tanks, especially spaghetti straps, as they are meant to be seen!

I got some pearl + clear bead straps, but they have some that are pearl + pink, pearl + purple, pearl + green, pearl + multi-colored, the whole rainbow. Verrrrrrry bow-chick-a-wow-wow, but in a subtle way.

By the way, the chunky ring I’m wearing is also from Ang Namsilk, and also in a cornucopia of colors.

Ang Namsilk, Aloha Tower Marketplace

536-7455      http://angnamsilk.com/

Check it out! Rod’s just as nice In Real Life as he is in his blog. We actually talked about how I went to help Bruddah Al recently, and how Rod might get more involved in that to help us bloggers better enhance our pages.

Oh! That magazine in my hand is the latest issue of Homescape. As a flack, I’m constantly promoting everything I can get my hands on. So here’s my schpiel to you:

If you didn’t get the latest Homescape Magazine in your newspaper, you can get it in the magazine racks around town. One of the featured articles (if I may be so bold) is about achieving harmony in the kitchen through feng shui. Oh, there are other articles in there, too.  But that’s the one that counts.

For some people, it’s a great chance to catch up with old friends that you haven’t seen for years. For others, it’s a way to get to know people that you didn’t really know before.  An added bonus is seeing how people have changed, or how they have stayed the same. Remember Daniel Hahn, who spent his entire high school career with recreational herbs in the parking lot?

Leo Asunscion (known to everyone else at McKinley as LOFF) is closing off reservations at the end of this month. If you want to attend and get the party favors, email mhs83reunion@hotmail.com as soon as possible to reserve your spot!

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, or refusing to check your email like Keith Kotani, you already know about the reunion. If you need to be reminded, please go to http://mhs83.tripod.com. I need to stress that it’s really important that you get the details correct; there are a bazillion Hawaii reunions in Vegas that weekend, and I wouldn’t want you to accidentally drop in on the wrong one.  God forbid if you attended the Aiea Class of 83 reunion by mistake!

Until then, mahalo from your reunion committee!

Mckinley High School Class of 1983

25th Year Reunion

October 9-13 (Reunion Dinner is on the 11th); Las Vegas Club

http://mhs83.tripod.com or email mhs83reunion@hotmail.com

Arlene and Carolynn suggested this restaurant for several reasons: it’s yummy, it’s affordable, it’s a comfortable place to eat, and (shamefully) it is in my neighborhood and I’ve never been there.

It’s a neighborhood restaurant that has an “old” feel to it, although it’s been open seven years. Many of the people who eat here–often braving the long weekend dinner line–are regulars, and sort of recognize each other as such. And yet, there are people like me who should have tried this place long ago, and are surprised to “discover” such a gem.

Arlene and Carolynn have their favorites, like the butterfish and the clams. Everything is served in dainty little dishes (”I’d hate to be the dishwasher here!” Carolynn mused) and in managable portions. We started with some edamame ($4), then their agedashi tofu ($5.25). Although it is fried, the tofu is very light-tasting. The steamed clams ($8.75) come with a broth that they said is usually quite rich, but since I squeezed some of the lemon over the bowl it lightened the overall flavor…not in a bad way, mind you! The clams were fat and tender, by the way.

We moved on to the hamachi ($8.50), their shrimp tempura side order ($11.25), and the miso butterfish, all very good choices. The hamachi tasted as fresh and fatty as it looked. The tempura is reflective of the restaurant’s proficiency with deep-fried foods. There’s a non-oily, delicate crunch on the shrimp tempura, as well as the accompanying tempuras of chiso, long bean, kabocha, eggplant, and potato. Some people think fried foods may be wrong for you. If that’s so, then I don’t want to ever be right.  At least, not at Yama Chan! The butterfish was appropriately salty, but not overwhelmingly so. Usually I’m dying for a bowl of rice with the butterfish, but in this case, it’s kind of optional.

The service is quick and attentive at Yama Chan, always gracious. Since Arlene and Carolynn are regulars, Nikki could suggest what we’d like to eat next and was very pleased to see us clean the plates.

It was an added bonus to find that Yama Chan is a BYOB establishment. When I return with my neighbor Clayton, that’s probably what we’ll do, and safely stagger back home. Ah, I love this neighborhood!

Restaurant Yama Chan: 1145-B S. King St. (If driving, turn into the alley after Yama Chan but before the bike shop and park behind.)

 596-YAMA (9262)

11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday

The “greening” of America is finally taking off, thanks in part to celebs like Al Gore, Leo DiCaprio, and Ahnya Chang (who I’d like to say was an excellent member of the Environmental Lobby). The impact of this movement was obvious at last night’s event, “Green is the New Black,” put on by the Wedding Café, Kanu Hawaii and Divas Doing Good.

It had all the makings of an environmentally-friendly event: It was on the water at Waterfront at Aloha Tower; it featured a fashion show by environmentally-conscious local designers; it had a silent auction full of items promoting this concept; and a presentation with tips on how YOU can conserve our resources.

I sort of do my part, but they had some tips I had never even thought of, like not asking for a receipt at the ATM, go vegetarian once a week, and recycling wire hangers.

I was not the only one who noticed that they seem to be against bottled water, but bottled water was served at the event. Someone else told me later they tried to throw their empty water bottle in a recycle bin, but there was none!  Oops.

Anyway: Unless you are Song Choi, you were following me on Twitter, so you may already know that this event was THE place to be. I was amazed at how hip & chic everyone looked at this event, even old people like me.

Here’s Christa Wittmier (she’s on the right) and her crew near the pier bar. See how subdued and Christina Applegate-ish she looks? She’s sad because she’s leaving Visionary Radio but is happy because she’s going to Better Brands. Call me, Christa! I got some ideas for you!  Right behind her is Hawaiian Ryan. Remember him? He was a hilarious DJ in the 90s and moved to Kauai. I hear he’s returned. And he’s still funny.

Remember my blog about “It’s all relative?” I highlighted my cousin Lynda, who saw me on TV. Well, the gal in yellow is her daughter Kristen Conner. (Note to readers, my family is everywhere—just like the pod people. And this is just my mom’s side.) When I told Kristen that her mom is on my blog, she tripped out because she perceives her mom to be very low-tech, and not the type to access a blog. Just the other night, Kristen had to help her send emails!

I was going to show you photos of our favorite foods, which included a dish from Fred d’Angelo: He created oysters with a CRAB luau and a lovely blue salt to imitate water.  I wanted to ask him to conserve the plates and just pile a whole bunch on one for me! But alas, the food did not photograph very well. There was also delish wedding cake, champagne sorbet, Gordon Biersch finger foods, and more.

Well, no sense crying over spilled milk….as you can see, you should have been here for a variety of reasons. But you can still do your part to save the earth! Join Kanu Hawaii and learn about the various ways you can reduce your carbon footprint, then put it into action.

Mahalo to Tanna Dang of the Wedding Café for an amazing event!