Some time ago Crystal, jokingly, spluttered out, “designer purse, designer bunny, designer boyfriend!” Although I forget what inspired the forementioned comment, one thing was certain - it sparked my interest in just what is a “designer bunny.” I will also use this opportunity to answer some of the most popular questions about this very special lapin.

“Sniffy” is actually short for “Sniffy S. Snifferson,” and is now a 4 year-old female Holland Lop. One summer, I assume 4 years ago, Laurie went back to Hawaii for the summer and Crystal was home alone - after a few mishaps with house plants she decided that a rabbit would be the cure to her all-too-quiet flat. The following day she bought Sniffy from Dolphin Pet Village in Campbell, Ca for all of $32 and change. At this point, her cage, or hutch if you will, was considerably more expensive then she was.

Now, what about the designer part? Well…I was not even aware there was such a thing as designer rabbits, but figured I’d give this a go. After searching for a definitive definition of ‘designer qualities’ for pets as well as couture I came up empty handed - therefore I made my own list. When we think designer, we often think of expensive, or of excess. Is $32 expensive for a rabbit? After some brief research it seems like rabbits vary from $10-$45 in pet stores, and if you purchase a purebred from a recognized breeder they go into the mid $100’s. Considering that Sniffy was $32 and from a pet store she certainly fits the upper echelons of lapin pricing.

Next, designer items usually have some identity, flourish, and presence. Sniffy definitely fits all 3 of these qualities - she possesses a milk cow patterned fur coat, a definitive and captivating personality of sorts, and although she thinks she’s sneaky one definitely takes notice when she hops into the room. In addition to these tell tale signs of designer, Sniffy is also blunt, arrogant in some situations, maintains an indifferent attitude, and generally only arrives if it benefits her in some way, shape, or form.

Not to mention she only grazes on the following: ZuPreem Nature’s Promise pellets, Alfalfa bales from a small farm in Alamo, Ca, Organic cilantro from Whole Foods, and slurps only on Hetch Hetchy’s finest.

So, with all this in mind is Sniffy a designer rabbit? I’m not so sure, but what I do know is her vet considers her exotic, that’s what her bill says anyways.

[via Sniffy Project]
[via Sniffy Flickr]

-Wallace

The fashion world, modern art lovers world wide, and San Francisco lost one of their own today - Don Fisher lost his long battle with cancer today. Don along with his wife, Doris, founded ‘The Gap’ in 1969, and little did they know it then they would grow it 3100 store, $14.5B empire.

Mr. Fisher was known for many things, amongst those, one of the city’s most generous philanthropists and having one of the world’s greatest collections of modern art. We lost one of the good ones today.

In spite of this dire news - Gap wants the modern man to dress like a hobo.

[via]
-Wallace

Many of us have those, “if only once in this lifetime…,” thoughts, and if you do you probably thought along such lines after eyeballing the photo above. Let me describe it for you - “The Mansion” is an 8 bedroom, 16,000 sq ft modern luxury mansion, for lack of fitting words, with it’s own exclusive street in the Hampstead area of London.

The property includes the usual perks - a theatre complete with pony hair chaises, floor to ceiling rear windows, walk in closets, separate prep areas, and even a barber/exam room.

Being intertwined with many high end real estate properties has jaded me in a way, but if my jaw could literally drop - I assure you it did when I laid eyes on this exceptional property.

Enjoy the photos:

well…maybe in this lifetime huh? It’s being offered at £35,000,000, or roughly $57,000,000 USD at the time of this post. ouch.

[via]

-Wallace

A little fisheye in the morning…

BAR at Supperclub San Francisco

Us hankering for drinks at Supperclub

The bar that greets Supperclub’s guests

The infamous doors that lead into the white room, the beds, and the performers.

Us lounging on fresh linens.

First course, a crab salad.

Acrobat

If you ever wondered how it’s like in Sniffy’s Hut.

Boat dock off the San Francisco Bay Trail in Alviso, Ca.

We learned a bit about the micro-ecosystem that inhabits our marshlands.

On the other side of the trail was one of the bay area’s many salt evaporation ponds - looked like mars.

As we strolled back to the parking lot, a marsh boat tooted past us. Looks like Alviso Yacht Club was still of service.

After walking through a short section of the SF Bay Trail (the entire trail is 800 miles), I took Crystal to Maria Elena’s - or jokingly, Little Mexico for some of the best Mexican food in the area.

My fish tacos rocked. I’m still craving more. One thing about the Bay Area that we both enjoy is all the micro communities intertwined with the rest of Silicon Valley. Downtown Palo Alto, Downtown Los Gatos, Big Basin, Wolfe Plaza, Willow Glen, and apparently Alviso.

Crystal also ventured into a brave new world Sunday evening, crafting a tomato bisque. Yum!

With summer coming to an end, we figured we’d better finish off our whites. On the table was a 2007 Bocage Chardonnay from Monterey, Ca. I forgot what it costs, but it’s sub $20 and an awesome value.

A little fisheye at night.

-Wallace

Infinity Towers

Gap HQ

Carnitas Tacos @ Mijita in the Ferry Building. Great recommendation Amos!

Beggar on Sacramento St. I first saw this guy some 3+ years ago, although since then he’s fattened up. Original photo here.

Jeanty at Jacks, another heartfelt victim of today’s economy.

Toyota installed some urban marketing for the Prius in Yerba Buena Gardens for the Arts.

Sherman & Clay neons on Mission St. x Third.

Sniffy also met Smorkin again…

Turns out, that she likes to be the alpha bunny in the house.

-Wallace

A few weeks back we were in Oahu…again. I don’t mean to say this as a bad thing, in fact it was pretty fantastic. In the short time we spent together on the island we accomplished, in my opinion, quite a whole lot. I also spent more time absorbing in the island rather then trying to photo-document the entire trip as I left my well-traveled dSLR on the mainland.

The main focus of this trip was for Laurie & Rob’s wedding held at the JW Marriott Ihilani at Ko Olina. It was also during this event which the role of the Hawaiian spirit donned on me, although Hawaii is our 50th state (and in it’s 50th year this year), I have always thought of them as being ‘like-us’ In other words, I have always wondered why Hawaiians seem to have a whole lot more pride then the rest of us seeming-less pride-less mainlanders. It finally drilled through my thick skull, that Hawaii was not like the rest of us - nevermind we overpowered and took over the islands as ours, they really have a separate heritage, tradition set, and history completely different then what our founding fathers fought for.

This was really taught to me thru Laurie’s sister’s Hulu gift at the reception. Although I’ve seen Hulu performed on many on top of many occasions prior I’ve always thought it was just another style of dance, or performance, or some islander come-hither gimmick for tourists. Regardless, I finally found my appreciation for Hawaii’s Polynesian heritage, culture, and rightful traditions. They do things differently then the rest of us so called westerners, and that’s absolutely ok.

The wedding itself was also nothing short of spectacular. One of the briefest ceremonies I’ve ever been to, and quite a relief due to the heat and humidity, but there’s just not much that compares to that Hawaiian sunset as a back drop. The people fun, food delicious, entertainment melted the evening away and the newly married couple just dazzling.

The following morning we made one of the best decisions of my short trip, we did absolutely nothing for hours. Rather then planning out the day and trying to figure where to go and what to do we grabbed breakfast at the hotel restaurant then rented a cabana, dipped in the lagoon, tanned under the sun, and otherwise slept in the cabana. This was really what ‘vacation’ is supposed to feel like I thought - complete and total relaxation. No worries, no thoughts, just sun, water, sand and rest.

After some 5 hours in the cabana we figured we better get on with the rest of our day. With this thought we washed up and hit the road - North Shore being our destination. Although we never made it quite as far, as I just hadn’t gotten the beach out of my system yet, we stopped by what’s known apparently as ‘Turtle Beach.’ - quite the surprise if one wasn’t expecting turtles. As soon as we crossed the street there were crowds everywhere along the shoreline, not sure what was going on we crept up as well and ‘wow!’ there was a green sea turtle right there feeding on algae.

We soon realized that there was not one, but at least 5-7 of these creatures right on or off the shoreline. Some were feeding, others were swimming, and a few were basking. Apparently Crystal had never seen a sea turtle in person either. A really magical sight.

On my last day in Oahu, I got up at 4am and headed down to the Oahu fish auctions wondering if they were anything like the auctions in Japan. They did things quite differently, and I’ll have to write a post on this at a future date - but it is worth visiting, at least once and there’s not as much hoopla as other writers wanted one to believe - for example, if you showed up at 5am - you haven’t really missed anything.

To sum things up, my trip was short and sweet. Being able to visit Crystal’s folks and grandparents again is always a pleasure - they have been more then generous hosts, and hospitality at the Dahlens are hard to beat. We also decided that this trip would have its focus on the gluttony and given the list below, I thought we fared well on this goal. Somewhere between the loaded mai tai’s, the sunsets, malasadas and turtles…I fell in love with Hawaii all over again.

Places we visited on this trip:

Uncles Fish Market and Grill
Pier 38
1135 N Nimitz Hwy
Honolulu, HI, 96817

Alan Wong’s
1857 King St., Third Floor
Honolulu, HI 96826

Leonard’s Bakery
933 Kapahulu Avenue
Honolulu, HI 96816

Moana Surfrider
2365 Kalakaua Ave
Honolulu, HI 96815

Senor Frog’s
2201 Kalakaua Ave # 313
Honolulu, HI 96815

JW Marriott Ihilani
92-1001 Olani St
Kapolei, HI 96707

Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck
57-083 Kamehameha Hwy
Kahuku, HI

Doraku
2233 Kalakaua Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96815

More Photos on my Flickr

-Wallace