My Summer Vacation: A Die Hard Christmas Eve

Kai has developed a Christmas Eve tradition of watching Die Hard; so we that was the plan for tonight. But first I had to buy the Amazon Fire TV Stick; it was available at Best Buy for $24.99. However, I did not feel like circling aimlessly while trying to find a parking spot, then fighting a crowd to find the Firestick, then standing in line to buy it. So I did it the lazy way; I bought it on-line and clicked on "Curb-side pick-up". It was an interesting experience. The website said it would be available for pick up in 1 hour, however the email said they would let me know; it was ready in about 2&1/2 hours. The text saying it was ready for pick up gave me directions on where to park, what to have ready (ID and credit card used for payment), and a link to click when I was there. The response when I clicked the link said it would be about 3 minutes for my item to be brought out & to have my phone available for the associate to scan the bar code that was sent to me. And within 3 minutes we had the Firestick! Since I don't have a TV in Kohala I am giving the Firestick to The Roommates as a Christmas present.

From the e-mail I got at 11:54 am.

From the e-mail I got at 2:13 pm.

The rest of the instructions for curbside pick up.

At 2:46 pm; when you park here a security guard checks to make sure you are doing a pick up.

Yes, I used the Christmas present before I gave it to them.

Kai got the Firestick installed and got The Roommate Who Likes to Wash Dishes' Netflix account up and running only to find out that Die Hard is not available for free during the Christmas season! He refused to cave and pay for something he can usually get for free. So we watched the wuxia movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny instead. (Apparently Die Hard is available for free at all other times of the year but is so popular as a Christmas movie that the streaming powers that be have decided to monetize it for the Christmas season. Perhaps I should get Kai a DVD of it for next year?)

Searching for Die Hard.

We ended up watching the sequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

It's a wuxia movie; basically a Chinese samurai movie.

According to Wikipedia it was filmed in New Zealand.

During my drive up this morning I saw Lynnette & June just as they were starting up Sierra. I later saw them while I was walking, they were starting around the circle as I was near the end of the circle at Lurline; then I saw them at the bottom of Lurline just before they headed down Monterey. I also saw LaVie going around the corner as I was pulling in to the parking lot. I started my walk following Wolf around the circle; we passed Mike & Dulci along the way. I also saw Popokilani; she ran across the road from the lower parking lot right in front of a car! She came to me when I called her, but kept watching Lorraine as she came up Sierra. It turns out it wasn't really Popokilani, just a friendly similarly-marked cat; she ran away when Lorraine got too close for her comfort. I later saw Lorraine going down Lurline. During my cool down stretches I saw Mike & Marley starting their walk.

Twenty minutes before sunrise on Waiʻalae.

Nine minutes before sunrise on Maunalani.

Eleven minutes after sunrise on Sierra.

Not Popokilani, just friendly.

Popokilani, back in September.

This morning I also got a look at the corner of the building that was hit by a police car just after midnight yesterday. Apparently there was a car chase and the person in the other car bumped the police car and forced it off the road, hitting the building at the intersection where I take my first morning photo on Waiʻalae.

Dad was eating breakfast in the Orchid Dining Room; he was sharing a table with Mr. Watanabe and Mr. Kaneshiro. He ate half his fried egg sandwich and all his papaya and banana. He drank 120 ml coffee but no water or juice.

I decided I really need to do at least 2 walks each day during the holidays so I don't get too loaded up with carbs in my system. I am still not really in ketogenesis from Sunday's party plus leftovers last night; its just above "Trace". During my mid-morning walk the only regular I saw was Matthew as he drove by waving and saying, "Merry Christmas!"

Lunch today was Fish nitsuke, Brown rice, Asian vegetables, Garden salad, Pineapple upside-down cake, and Chicken noodle soup; I skipped lunch since I was taking Kai out to dinner for Christmas eve. Dad ate all his 1/2 peanut butter & banana sandwich and all his pineapple upside-down cake; he also had a madeleine. He drank 240 ml cranberry juice and 30 ml water.

For dinner I gave Kai 3 choices: Restaurant XO, The Surfing Pig, and Broken Rice; he chose The Surfing Pig. Kai had the Surfing Pig Burger and I had the Truffle New York. For dessert we had the Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding ala mode. Just like before, everything was excellent!