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Sabrina's Several people have told us about this cute little restaurant near Saint Louis Heights. They raved about the food. I was a little skeptical. In my younger days I worked as a cook at two Italian restaurants and have eaten many tasty Italian dinners. A lot of Hawaii's Italian restaurants are good but they're not always great. Sabrina's location at the corner of Waialae Avenue and Saint Louis Drive is loaded with restaurants. Many of them open up and then close after a few months. The ... Read Full Post

The Police concert in Honolulu The Police completed their world tour in Honolulu this past weekend. Initially they we had one show scheduled for Saturday, February 16th. Tickets sold out in about two hours. The Police decided to have another show on Sunday, February 17th. I managed to get tickets for that show, held at the Blaisdell Arena in downtown Honolulu. The opening act was a group called Fiction Plane. They sounded pretty good, I'd never heard of them though so the songs were not famil... Read Full Post

Tax information for Hawaii homeowners Selling your principal residence A single homeowner can claim up to $250,000 from the sale of a principal residence as a tax-free profit. A qualified married couple filing jointly in the year of a home sale can claim up to $500,000 tax-free profits. To qualify, Internal Revenue Code 121 requires owning and occupying your principal residence at least two of the last five years before its sale. However, if you acquired your home in an Internal Revenue Code ... Read Full Post

Momentum Multisport triathlon shop in Honolulu Momentum Multisport opened its doors in August, 2007. Owner Nguyen (pronounced "Wen") Le is a competitive cyclist and triathlete. His crew includes Kurt Chambers, merchandise manager and Mike "Biz" Bisig in charge of sales. Kurt is an elite triathlete with a wealth of knowledge about training, equipment and nutrition. Biz is an experienced salesperson who's worked at Performance Bike, among other stores in the mainland. Mechanics include Tom Capt... Read Full Post

Ninnikuya Take a look at the sign, Ninnikuya is known as the Garlic Restaurant. And oh is this good stuff - if you like garlic! Dinner at Ninnikuya We shared a spinach salad for starters. In the salad there was cooked garlic and it tasted great. Dinner was a ribeye steak served sizzling on a platter with large chunks of garlic. We cut pieces of the steak and chunks of garlic and the taste was just fantastic. A side order of garlic-fried rice balanced out the meal. Each time I've been to Ninni... Read Full Post

The Surf Room at The Royal Hawaiian Hotel The Surf Room is an oceanside restaurant with a full menu. On Friday nights there's also a seafood buffet. We visited the Surf Room recently and tried the buffet. If you're not a seafood lover, don't worry. The buffet has a wide variety of foods. On the evening of our visit, the seafood selections included crab, shrimp, sashimi and oysters. Other main courses were chicken, pasta and prime rib. There were several different salads that were tasty and he... Read Full Post

Oahu low flush $100 toilet rebate will expire this year Have you replaced your toilet lately? If you've been thinking about it, now is a good time to get it done. Ten years ago, the City and County of Honolulu decided to offer a rebate to people replacing their toilets with a low-flush toilet. The rebate is $100 for toilets installed no later than June 30, 2008. The application form must be filed with the City and County no later than July 1, 2008. The new generation of low flush toilets work... Read Full Post

Keo's Thai Cuisine This popular restaurant has been on Oahu since 1981. Keo's used to be at the corner of Date Street and Kapahulu Avenue, where a Starbucks is now located. In 1997 the restaurant moved to Waikiki at 2028 Kuhio Avenue, where it intersects with Kuamoo Street. Parking is by valet service. In this area, street parking is in short supply and it will save you some hassles to use the valet. If you're planning for an early dinner, checkout the Dining Out section in Sunday's Honolulu ... Read Full Post

Deadline for filing Oahu tax appeals is 1/15/08 If you're a homeowner on Oahu and want to appeal your assessed property value, the deadline is next Tuesday! Your letter must be postmarked by that date or you'll have to wait until next year and try again. The tax assessment office does not accept appeals sent by fax. The form for filing appeals is BFS-RP-P-51. You can download it at our website: http://www.oahumls.net/realestatefaq.php. Please note that there's a $25 fee payable to the City an... Read Full Post

Hawaiian Winters - it's not always sunny here Two thousand and seven was a pretty dry year in Hawaii. Ironic, because in 2006 we had the "40 days and nights" of rain in March and April. On December 4, 2007 we got another heavy dose of rain. I woke up around 2 a.m. to the sound of wind and rain, pelting the south side of our home. It was unusual because Hawaii normally experiences trade winds, which come from the northeast. The rain was traveling in a near horizontal pattern, flying into our s... Read Full Post