Short and sweet today on dis Feel Good Friday.

Can you figgah out, if anything, wat da heck is going on wit dis picture? And yes, it is a real picture of a real building in Waikiki and it made me say Wassup Wit Dat! as soon as I noticed it.









SHOUT OUT: My condolences to Uncle Rodney on the passing of his mother. I'm surah he'll agree she's lived a good life and now is in a bettah place.

While not everyone agrees in a time of passing, we should celebrate and not mourn, especially if dat person has impacted your life in a positive way.

God bless you and your ohana Uncle Rod!

Literally and figuratively........ tooooo much B.S. happening around me to post anything.

Gotta deal wit it and keep trucking on.

Anybody else in da same canoe?

Now dat we get Da Baby, we more aware of things dat has to do with her wen we go out. Wen get establishments dat do little things to either occupy - or satisfy in some cases - da little ones, it's a plus for any parent and patrons as well. It's especially a huge benefit for da establishment cause da more time you're in da store and "concentrate" on shopping, means more profit in their pocket. It's an Econ 101 no-brainer in my book.

Yesterday as I dropped off our team hats for embroidery (no worries, NKHEA, I get your job ready dis week ), Da Wife and I decided to stop by Old Navy Ala Moana to pick up some clothes for Da Baby since it's been unreal hot recently.

Old Navy is pretty cool in dat they get one decent sized open area dat has a keiki bench picnic table with a hole cut out and a bowl full on crayons in da middle. They also provide coloring paper cause crayons are useless without 'em. It's neat to see dat they would sacrifice floor space to do it but again, it goes back to Econ 101.

Wen we first got there, there were two pleasantly plump - who am I kidding, ovahweight - daddies on each side of da table with one cheek on da seat as if they didn't know/realize dat da table wasn't for adults. Da Baby looked at them (cause she knows wat da table is about) but followed Da Wife to da girls section anyways. Ten minutes latah she asks if could color so we walk back to check da table and saw dat it was empty and still in tact.

She sat herself down and usually there's papah's all ovah da table but dis time was clean. I looked on da side wea they keep da sheets and a'ole. I walk up to a clerk nearby and ask if they had any more sheets. She walked to da table, looks at it, looks at da side and said, "sorry."

Uh, duh.

I asked if she could check and about ten feet away were a couple of "managers". They had to finish their "conversation" before acknowledging da subordinate and very quickly said they were out.

Da Baby was bummed out but it was a "bonus" to have dat anyways so too bad so sad for us. We tracked down Da Wife and then she tells me she packed up her coloring book and crayons in her diaper bag.

Ohhhhhh yeeeeeah.... Da Wife rocks!

Just so happen there was an empty table (actually was a shelf for shirts) Da Baby's height so I put da book out and away she went.

Aftah Da Wife was pau we had to walk by da table once again and wat do we see? You got.... coloring papah's all ovah.

Wassup Wit Dat!

No can believe, but can believe.

Then as we was standing in line, had these three haole wahine malahini's standing in line. Well two of them and da oddah was walking around with a pair of shoes she wasn't surah she was getting or not. No, literally, she was walking around da store wit her foot in one side wit da oddah side still strapped to it. WWD! all da way.

Anyways, she was gone for awhile still shopping and of course da line eventually moved forward. We were right next to da line separator (dunno wat da heck you call those silver poles wit da straps you pull and connect to da oddah poles to separate da lines like in Disneyland) but da stroller front end was past da beginning of da pole. Dis wahine didn't care dat there were oddah people behind us and dat da front half of da stroller was "inside" da pole but decided to go OVAH da stroller as if it was in HER way to stand next to her companions in front of us.

Wassup Wit Dat!

I'm just glad Da Baby was acting her normal pupule self and cracking me up to get my mind off of wat just happened.

Well dat and da fact dat she was still wearing da shoe which had da oddah shoe still strapped to it making look like she three feet.

Now if only she had one brain.

We tease da wahine all da time for having too many fancy shmancy purses, au' kines of shoes and let's not fo'get about da accessories galore... and das just da "normal" stuff.

But I'll admit I get dat kine "habit" too and I was shocked to see my habit gone wild!

In a recent fit of trying to reclaim some living space in our hale, I found dat I got CHOKE bags and hats! Ok, ok....... so I already knew I had choke bags and hats but they're for good reason.

I literally got a bag for watevah I need it for like a duffel for wen I go out and play sports, a backpack dat I carry to work, a drawstring bag inside my backpack for wen I need to carry smaller stuff wen I no need da backpack, an Under Armour baseball practice duffel (sentimental cause it was a coaches gift embroidered w/ "Coach Lance"), one supah large duffel.... just in case I gotta carry something supah large, a laptop backpack, a camcorder bag, a camera bag, a fanny pack (yeah, you heard me, a fanny pack), a few oddah backpacks of varying sizes, a few Camelbacks of varying sizes, a couple of tool bags and a filled containers sitting on my gorilla rack shelf dat I haven't yet gone through.

Then I probably got enough hats and visors to wear a different one everyday for a month and a half! Of course I got about a dozen 49ers hats and visors readily available but I also got a good handful of UH hats and visors, two "Grumpy" hats (one was a gift) from Disneyland, an "Ainokea" hat (one of their original hats wen they first entered da scene), a bunch of hats dat I thought looked nice and then anoddah bunch of hats dat I thought was cool.

O..... M..... G!!! I'm da Imelda Marcos of bags and hats!?!

Wassup Wit Dat!

Even Da Wife commented how many bags and hats I have but I tell her dat at least I either got 'em free or supah cheap and they all have a purpose! It's like I tell her da cardinal rule of fixing things: you gotta have da right tools for da right job.

At least das my excuse for feeding da habit.

One of da "rules" dat nevah gets broken wenevah I spock one bag or hat out is if da buggah not on sale, clearance or just cheap in general, I gotta put 'em back on da shelf. Even da hat prices have gone pupule going like $22+ wen I remembah it used to be about $15 before so unless they $20 or less, I gotta say a'ole.

I guess das why my "collections" have stopped growing.

Wat kine "habits" are growing in your closet? Wat is it dat no mattah if you window shopping, you still going check out your "thing"? Have you commented/teased on your oddah half's collection(s)?

Wat are you an Imelda Marcos of?

In da nevah ending field of drama (pun intended), last week was not a shock. Well, not entirely.

As we finished da team pre-practice instruction, da players broke to their positions on da field. As they headed out, there was a group of people in deep right field. They weren't hanging around but holding some sort of softball practice. You would think dat if they saw a whole bunch of keiki baseball players on da field, equipment strung out throughout, dat there was some sort of organized activity going on right?

A'ole.

They were about twenty-five feet from my right fielder so I waited a few minutes to give them an opportunity to leave before sending a "warning shot" to right field.

Hint not taken.

I hit a couple more shots to show that they were impeding my right fielder and they continued hitting their softball and it wasn't until I noticed that the person hitting the softballs was literally ripping it to their people (they were not players - high school or older - and he certainly wasn't a coach). It was at that time I walked over because while I train my players to stay in front of hard hit balls, they are trained to field balls that are hit in front them, not behind them.

As I got closer, I loudly asked the two people standing in our field to leave and got no response. Instead, both of them gave stink eye and then they turned back to (try and) field more balls.

I asked again and added that if they didn't leave, they will be escorted off the field. After a few more stink eyes, they reluctantly, and slowly, left the field.

Then a few minutes latah, a large Polynesian man comes to our dugout, interrupts our practice and asks to speak to me.

LARGE MAN: "I wanted to let you know that I was offended by what you said."
BL: "You're wat? You're offended by wat I said?"
LARGE MAN: "Yes, you said you was going to escort us off the field."
BL: "That was because you guys didn't want to move even aftah I asked... twice."
LARGE MAN: "This is a public park."
BL: "Yes it is but we have a permit to practice on the entire baseball field."
LARGE MAN: "Well we didn't know. You could have told us that you had a permit and you guys were all the way here (pointing to home plate)."
BL: "Excuse me? You see a full team of kids on the field, two adults, equipment all ovah and you don't think we're going to practice and use da field? We're here (pointing to home plate) because that's wea we give instructions before da players head out to da field. Why YOU nevah ask if it was ok to practice there (pointing to right field)?"
LARGE MAN: "You still offended me be saying you're going to escort us off the field."
BL: "You're offended?! You gotta be kidding me! *full on Korean action coming on* Even aftah I asked politely, TWICE, to leave da field, then those two standing in da out field no even move and then give stink eye and then show disrespect.... and YOU'RE offended........ I'M OFFENDED!!!

Wassup Wit Dat!

LARGE MAN: "You didn't ask me to leave da field."
BL: "You wasn't even on da field! I asked those who were on da field to move and if they didn't relay that message to you then it's on them. Plus you guys was ripping da ball to them (their outfielders), wat if it was hit too far or you guys couldn't field it? It would have injured my player... then wat?"

Dis went on for a few minutes until finally he left.

One of my players comes up to me aftah practice and says, "Coach, are you nuts???" *Referring to da intimidating size of da man*

I responded by telling him dat wen it comes to trying to do da right thing, you can nevah be nuts. I am "passionate" about living true and right and will not stand of da downfall of common courtesy and respect and dat is wat I'm trying to pass onto da team.

I did tell da player dat while it was wrong on their part be rude and disrespectful, I was wrong to have gotten "excited". Wen someone comes to talk and not be confrontational, I should show da same respect regardless of how passionate I am.

Lesson learned........ both ways........ and yeah, I am shmall kine nutz.