The B. Stands for Bucks
I think I was wrong. The “B” in B. Patisserie may not stand for “box” but rather “bucks” as in we spend big bucks whenever we pay a visit.
Life
I Don’t Know Fashion
Obviously my fashion sense is flawed, especially when Target is involved. Here I thought the Victoria Beckham collaboration with Target would be very popular. But judging from the inventory currently available, it appears that this Spice Girl-turned-designer collection isn’t doing that well.
After looking through the line, yeah, I’m not won over. Maybe it’s just a Hawaii-thing, but I can’t picture the locals outfitted in these pieces.
That’s too bad since Target was ready to handle the (potential) sales by installing even more self checkout counters.
Target Kailua Now With More Self Service
I guess after a one-year learning session with these self checkout counters at Target Kailua, the time to expand was right. Now the self checkout counters have about doubled with the installation of another row.
Amazingly, the traditional checkout counters manned by employees still have long queues. I guess business must be good?
Coming to Kailua: AT&T and GNC
Finally coming to Kailua is its own AT&T location. Previously, the closest location was in Kaneohe, but now Kailua residents can get serviced at the soon-to-open location near Times.
Neighboring AT&T is the once-again relocated GNC. GNC was right across the street next to Starbucks and Jamba Juice then moved by UPS. And now its latest is at the Kailua Shopping Center.
Looking for Trip Itinerary Planning
Can anyone recommend a good trip itinerary planning service or app? Ideally, I’d want both – a web site that has a mobile app to access its services on the go. This service would keep track of a trip itinerary, showing what’s planned for each day. Gotta be able to add places, attractions, events, lodging, etc by name but also show these locations on a map. Need to share this itinerary with others going on the trip. These other travelers should be able to add other locations they’re interested in seeing. They can also leave comments on locations. Sounds basic right? Sadly, I haven’t found anything that works completely.
TripAdvisor
I started with TripAdvisor that covers most of my needs. The reviews and data behind TripAdvisor make it a great place to start. But I’m running into problems adding small attractions to a TripAdvisor saved trip. It’s easy to add the mainstream attractions, but say you wanted to visit a specific 7-Eleven in Kyoto (for whatever reason), you’d probably have a hard time in TripAdvisor since this mundane location won’t have an entry. So how do you add that spot to your saved trip itinerary?
TripAdvisor uses Google Maps to visually depict my trip locations, but it doesn’t fully integrate with Google Maps. I can’t pull up my TA-saved locations using the Google Maps app. I manually re-enter them into Google Maps.
Google Maps and Trips
So a search for “trip planning itinerary” reminded me of Google’s recent Trips mobile app. It’s mobile only and kinda useful if you have no real itinerary set while on your trip since the app will give you suggestions. Too basic for what I need, but it does integrate with my saved locations in Google Maps.
Google Maps is just that, maps. This is useful in and of itself, but you can’t build an itinerary solely off of a map. It does help plan your trip since you can easily see locations in a region and get approximate travel times. I tried adding multiple layers in the My Maps area where one layer corresponded to one day. But there’s a (small) limit to how many layers your map can have, so that was a no go.
Yelp
Um, no.
Google Docs
Sadly, Google Docs seems like the eventual winner for my predicament although I don’t like it. Sure, it can sorta do the job but isn’t the most elegant match for what I ideally want. I can add links to all the places that we’re going to or plan to go to. I can share and collaborate on Docs, and I can add the link to my shared Google Maps. But it’s so not what I want.
There has to be something! Sound off below.
An Unicorn Kind of Day
Today was surely a day of unicorns where not one, but two proverbial unicorns made an appearance. First off, Starbucks really did launch their magical Unicorn Frappuccino today.
Yup, it’s pink, purple, and blue and looks absolutely crazy! But, the taste is anything but crazy. Heck, it’s even not as sweet as it looks. Sure, there’s sugar galore, but it’s not so bad that you’re done after a few sips. Despite this drink’s outlandish appearance, you’ll taste vanilla. Colored vanilla, but vanilla nonetheless. The sour raspberry swirl does add a much needed kick for contrast, but there’s not enough of it. You’ll quickly go back to vanilla. There’s a tinge of fruity flavor, but I wouldn’t have said mango if I didn’t already know that. Fun and frivolous, but it’s one and done for me.
The second unicorn of the day occurred while waiting at a traffic stop light. Check this out.
See that old school Toyota Servco bag? I haven’t seen one in years since I was a teenager. I had a black one with the silver panels. Such memories of stuffing sporting equipment and anything else in the bag. No pockets, no dividers, no compartments, just one cavern of space. Okay, really, it wasn’t the greatest bag, but the memories! I guess these bags are still made, or is this really an unicorn sighting?
Signs of Hawaii: Community Sink
I don’t know what kind of places @abaggy frequents, but he does find signs that are doozies. I mean what kind of workplace needs to post this kind of sign in the first floor breakroom?
I guess you need to rinse your mouth and spit in the communal bathroom sink.
THIS IS A COMMUNITY SINK.
My MacBook Pro Saga Ends
Four months later, the saga comes to an end with the receipt of this final shipment.
The saga started in January when I received my MacBook Pro charger and charging cable. A few days later, another USB-C dongle showed up. Now in April, my USB-C dongle life is full with the ThunderBolt and Ethernet adapters.
My Kryptonite
My weakness must obviously be red cinders. While moving bags of these cinders, my back seized up, and I’m still in pain.
Stay away from red cinders, and don’t get old.
UPS Store in Kailua Temporarily Closing
If you have to return your Nike purchase via UPS soon, do so before the weekend when the UPS location in Kailua will be closing its doors. But this is only temporary as some kind of short term renovation is done over from April 7 to 10.
Researching Data Plans for Japan
Staring up some research on mobile data plans while in Japan. A pocket wifi device is a very popular option and frompineapples has a rundown on vendors. Decent prices, fast speeds, lots of data capacity, but it’s a shared resource that also needs charging (or an extra battery).
Global Advanced Communications and the Wifi Rental Store look like solid starts. Delivery of the device to your hotel appears to be a common convenience, otherwise pickup at the airport is an option.
bmobile offers a data-only SIM card for mobile phones that are unlocked. Their plan goes for 21 days and offers 5 GB of data. But at its cost, you could get two SIMS for phones for the price of one pocket wifi. That means you’d have two phones that work independently, not tethered to the proximity of a pocket wifi. And since you’re using your own phone, you already have its charging routine down with perhaps an external battery charger. But since you are most likely using a non-native phone, you can’t connect to Japan’s super high speed data network. The hardware and network commonality is at 4G, not LTE.
Depending on the number of devices, we may have to go with a hybrid approach. One shared pocket wifi along with a few SIMs, one per family? More research to do…
Xbox Accessories
Need to pick up a few things.
A controller.
A charging station with batteries for two controllers.