Lazy Maui Weekend

We went to see Ulalena last night after winning that one free ticket on our first night at the Lahaina Shores Beach Resort. It was.....O---K----. Maybe it's because we're not truly mainland tourists, but it wasn't really worth the $32.00 a person we ended up paying for both of us to go. It was sort of a Hawaiian Cirque du Soleil sort of show. However, the performers really tried their best to give you a good time.

Today, we're staying at the Kaanapali Hyatt Regency which our son-in-law is treating us to. It's very, very, VERY Luxurious, but you know what? We really liked the Lahaina Shores Beach Resort. Our room there was very spacious and it had a fully furnished kitchen. The bathroom had a separated sink area so that two people could do their own personal thing. It was also just 10 minutes walking distance from the center of Lahaina. I'd stay there again.

The Kaanapali Hyatt Regency is a secluded resort. Walking about the hotel with its meandering walkways filled with golden crowned cranes, flamingo and parrots, I didn't see a single local person. Ah well... this is quite the experience.


It's a leisurely Saturday. We'll be returning to Oahu tomorrow night.

I'm able to get to the computer more easily now that we're actually staying in the same hotel with Tif and her family. It's been very hard to post on an unfamiliar computer. However, perhaps it's good because it prohibited me from posting 50 photos a day.


Here's a photo I forgot to post yesterday. Tif bought both KC and me matcing t-shirts. KC had fun telling me we were twins.

The Aquarium, the Needle and a Show

We spent yesterday morning walking down Front Street which is the tourist spot for Lahaina. It was very quiet, unlike the evening when throngs of tourists crowd the sidewalk.


Our afternoon was spent at Maui Ocean Center. It doesn't come close to rivaling Chicago's Shedd Aquarium, but KC loved it!


KC loved the touching pool. She couldn't get enough of touching the sea urchins and starfishes.


Instead of eating at a "nicer" restaurant, Ed wanted to try the deep fried Spam musubi (riceball) at Da Kitchen in Lahaina with us. Deep fried?


I couldn't believe my son-in-law would forgo eating fancy cuisine for this. My cholesterol went up just watching him.


They ordered macaroni and cheese for KC and this is what they got. Can you believe they actually deep fried macaroni and cheese? Well... as unhealthy as it is, KC loved it.


Art, Ed and I had this teriyaki beef. I didn't think you could ruin teriyaki beef in Hawaii. Everybody knows how to make it. It was awful! It tasted like soy sauce cardboard! But they gave you a lot of it. When the waitress came by and asked how we liked it, I told her it was horrible. She brought over a bowl of sauce and I told her it made it barely edible.

She came back and said they felt badly that we didn't like it and offered us a consolation chocolate molten lava cake and ice cream. You know-- it actually made up for the terrible meal.

I guess chocolate can make up for almost anything.


We went to the Iao Needle State Park today.


We saw the 2250 foot Iao Needle. Its Hawaiian name is Kuka' emoku. It is supposed to be the phallic stone of Kanakoa, the Hawaiian god of the ocean.


Lunch was at Sam Sato's where the long line was daunting, but the saimin was worth it. KC ate every single noodle, much to the owner's delight.

I forgot to mention that on our first night at the Lahaina Shores Beach Resort, we took part in an Expedia raffle. We could not believe it when our number came up and we won a $72.00 ticket to see the Ulalena Hawaiian show. We did have to buy a second ticket and look forward to seeing it this evening.

Well... gotta go!

Vacation Accident!

Last night we went to the Pineapple Grill. Our son-in-law wanted to treat us to a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant that he knows we'd never go to.

However, it was one of those evenings where everybody was tired out from a day in the sun and humidity (it's HUMID here in Lahaina). KC was especially cranky from lack of sleep (5 hour time difference with Illinois) and hunger and could not muster the self control and usual good manners her parents expect her to display in a fine dining restaurant.

As we were leaving after dinner a series of freak events occurred that led to Tiffany opening her door after securing KC into her seat and hitting her forehead on the edge of the car door.

Sitting in the back I could actually see it all happen in almost slow motion and know that it was bad.


Art quickly went back to the restaurant with me close behind asking for ice and napkins to staunch the blood flow. There was so much blood... We asked where the nearest ER was. Would you believe they told us the nearest doctor was at the Hyatt Regency Hotel where Tif and family are staying?


We rushed back to the hotel and the doctor said Tif would require stitches. I was worried they'd say that knowing Tif and I scar very easily. Ed stayed with Tif while Art and I carried an extremely subdued KC to their hotel room.


Then the doctor said that if it was his daughter he'd do the skin glue technique to avoid the more visible scarring that stitches would cause.


Tif and Ed had planned to go snorkeling tomorrow and even bought the tickets. It had to be cancelled. We've learned you have to be flexible on vacations.

We arrived at the hotel this morning to learn that KC had taken to heart what we had told her before her parents returned from the doctor. She'd been getting up at 2:00 AM (jet lag) and wanting her mother's attention.

We told her that her mommy would need her help to get better and that mommy would need lots of rest. I wasn't sure how much she was absorbing when I told her she shouldn't wake mommy up and should let her sleep.

Tif says she was really surprised that KC did exactly that this morning. We're going to let Tif and Ed have a quiet fancy dinner tonight. We'll take KC to... hmmm... Don't worry, we'll find some nice cheap eats!

Maui No Ka Oi (Maui, the Best)

Yesterday, we got up at 3:30 AM and caught the 5:30 AM flight to Kahului Airport on Maui. Tif and KC came to pick us up. Seeing KC's excited face in the car window was priceless.


It was quite interesting to see a different mountain range. Maui is quite different from Oahu.


We wandered throughout the resort Tif and her family was staying at while KC insisted on picking fallen flowers up from the ground to give to us. I was noticing that there weren't a whole lot of locals staying there.


Tif and Ed treated us to a fancy dinner at 'Umalu which is at their hotel, the Hyatt Regency Resort and Spa.


Art and I shared a bulgogi sandwich and a seared ahi kula greens salad with kim chee on the side. It was perfect!


We're staying at the not-as-fancy Lahaina Shores Beach Resort and we really like it. It's got a wonderful kitchen with a fully furnished kitchen.


I love the mountain view! Art got up early this morning and went for a jog through Lahaina and who should he bump into but my cousin, Arnold and his friend, Nancy who were vacationing from Oahu. They invited us to lunch.


We were having such a great time that we stayed there for two hours!


My swordfish and kula greens salad was fantastic!


Then Art and I walked over to see the old 137 year old Banyan tree that Lahaina is also famous for.

Tif came to pick us up to spend the afternoon together and now we're going out to the Pineapple Grill for dinner tonight. I'll say one thing for Maui, it's got great food.

Counting Silverswords Before They...

I have this one memory of our trip to Maui with the kids nearly two decades ago. Art told the kids he wanted them to see the sunrise from Haleakala. They refused to get up that early, but Art got them up soon afterward.

We drove up to the top of the volcano and the kids enjoyed seeing the very rare Silversword plant that is supposed to be found only on "the island of Maui in Haleakalā National Park at an elevation of 2,100 to 3,000 m on the Haleakalā summit depression, the rim summits, and surrounding slopes of the dormant Haleakalā volcano."

On the way down, the kids kept falling asleep so we told them that they should stay awake to see the beautiful scenery. They still kept dozing so we told them we'd give them 10 cents for every Silversword they could spot. There weren't any so they started to fall asleep. "50 cents!" I upped the ante. That worked for perhaps five minutes. I realized then that we were well below the elevation where you could find Silverswords so I said, "$1.00 for each and every Silversword you can spot!"

That did keep them up. We spotted a turn-off to a Visitor Center so I told Art we should stop, walk around and learn something. The kids weren't excited. We got out of the car and walked to the Center. And that's where we saw it. A huge display FULL of baby Silverswords!!!

The kids ran toward the display and started laughing and furiously counting, refusing to leave the display. We had to agree to give the kids $200.00 a piece! We put $190.00 into each of their accounts and gave them $10.00 to spend.

That's the last time I made that sort of bargain with the kids.

Sense of Direction? Where?

I've accepted a long time ago that I do not have a working sense of direction. Art knows I could get lost in a store and never find my way out. OK... I'm exaggerating, but not by much.

Tiffany is more like Art and always keeps an eye on me so I don't get lost in unfamiliar places. She has always had an internal gyroscope. Her husband is even better.

That's why I suppose I shouldn't have been too surprised to hear this story. Tif says Ed had something to do so she and KC were going back to their Maui hotel room together. Tif forgot the short cut she was planning to take and was going to ask somebody for help. Three year old KC said, "Mommy, I can take you back." Granted it was not the short cut Tif was going to take, but KC actually led her back to the hotel room the way they left it.

Well... that does it! I suppose I'll have to make sure I keep KC close by me so I don't get lost on Maui.

Art and I are getting up tomorrow at 3:30 AM and leaving on the 5:30 AM flight. It's $63.00 for that Hawaiian Airlines flight and $93.00 for the next one at the more reasonable hour.

We haven't been back to Maui since the kids were in grade school. I can't wait to go in a few hours. However, it's not necessarily the island I'm looking forward to seeing, but a certain little navigator who says she's saving some red flowers for me.

Mulan Jr. and PF Chang's China Bistro

Mom, Art and I went to see Mulan Jr. last night at the Roosevelt High School Auditorium. My college roommate (used to be a high school biology teacher) now teaches piano and her three daughters are all musically gifted. They have formed a Ohana (Hawaiian for family) Summer Arts Club to give children an opportunity to learn to sing, dance, act and perform on stage. We were pleasantly surprised to see adorable 2nd to 6th graders really going all out to put on a great show. One of the best moments for us was an impromptu moment when one of the little boys who was acting as a Chinese soldier tried to draw his sword but got it momentarily stuck on his costume. He may have gotten the biggest laugh as he struggled with his cumbersome weapon.


Watching Mulan Jr. got us in the mood for Chinese food so we splurged and went to PF Chang's in Ala Moana.


The ambiance was great and the wait staff were friendly, attentive and very sweet.


I was disappointed with the Mongolian Beef. The beef was chewy and the green onions (scallions) were raw making it hard for my mother to chew on them. I'm not a fan of raw scallions either. The taste was just OK. We weren't wowed by it. It's hard to get Mongolian Beef right. They didn't. At least, I don't think so. The Mu Shoo Pork was very good so we could recommend that. Mom and Art liked the Chicken and Eggplant best.

The early morning and afternoon was spent going to Obon services, painting the closet, visiting with my brother and sister-in-law and pounding in laminate flooring. It was a very busy, but pleasant day.

Today, I'm packing for Maui! Woo hoo!

Death, An Unwelcome Visitor

One of Art's high school buddies called a week ago to say one of their classmates was under the care of hospice after a long battle with lung cancer. Four classmates who happen to live in our area decided to pay this long ago friend a visit yesterday.

Art found a card, passed it out to have everybody write a message, and drove them all to the other side of the island for their somber visit.

I was outside painting the shelves for the carport tool closet when Art returned. When he stepped out of the car, Art looked dazed and tired. He sat down heavily on a chair to tell me what happened.

The five friends had arrived for the visit. Their classmate's wife decided to stay home from work since they were all coming. The hour long visit was warm and happy. Despite a look of weariness, they could all see that their friend understood their conversation and was delighting in it. They spoke of the warm Honokaa days when life was full of fun and laughter.

Nearly lunch time they said they would have to leave. They stepped out of the room while the hospice helper and wife came to tend to their friend. Suddenly there was a cry for help. The five friends dashed in to find that their friend had stopped breathing. They helped to move him to the floor where CPR could be performed. Then with all these old school friends together, their friend died. They couldn't believe it. Their friend had died, and they felt helpless. 911 was not called because there was already a no-resuscitation family decision in effect.

Death had come unexpectedly; it was real and right before them.

It had been a rather bad morning for me. I'd been dealing with a lot of legal issues for the sale and transfer of our house from my mother to us, as well as getting ourselves organized for our trip to Maui and trying to finish my painting project.

Now, in perspective, my crazy morning was nothing. The unexpected loss of their classmate was painful, shocking and sad, but the friends were glad they could be there. They had lunch afterwards to just be together.

Art and I are finding our time even more precious. Death isn't on another street. It's not in another town or with an older generation. It's here and it could come at anytime. We need to appreciate each moment we have together before it comes to visit us.

Booking a Hotel Room

Yae!!! My daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter WILL be coming to Hawaii!!! Woo hoo! They'll be on Maui for a week and then Tif and KC will stay for a few days on Oahu with us. Ed will have to go back to Illinois from Maui since he's bogged down with more work.

Then we got the bright idea to join them on Maui. Ed, our son-in-law offered to get us a room using his frequent something or other points at a fancy hotel. Unfortunately, he couldn't find one for us, and the cheapest thing he could find in Kaanapali-Lahaina was $129.00 (a night for two people) at the Outrigger.

Wait! Remember me saying we usually stay at Motel 6? I don't like to pay more than $50.00 for a room.

I told Tif I would check and see if I could get a Kamaaina (local) rate. I checked Expedia and found Lahaina Shores Beach Resort for $99.00 a night. Yikes! Lahaina Inn was $89.00. Everything else was absurd! I could stay at Motel 6 for a week with those prices!

I called Lahaina Shores Beach and asked them in my best local accent (My brother is laughing right now since he says I'm still not up to par after living on the mailand for 35 years) for the cheapest Kamaaina rate.

"$169.00," the lady says.

"What? How come? That's expensive!" I retort in a nice local way.

"It's better not to use the Kamaaina rate," she explains. "Because of the bad economy, I have a special for you for $124.00."

"Whaaat? But I can get it for $99.00 on Expedia," I tell her in a friendly, but just slightly indignant voice. "Don't you think these prices are all a little crazy?"

"No, not crazy at all.... But, oh that IS better," she says cheerfully. "You should go with them, or try Rendezvous Tours. They're sometimes cheaper."

I tried Rendezvous Tours, but their hotel wasn't even listed.

Then I tried calling the other cheaper hotel, Lahaina Inn. The woman there quoted $170.00, with a bad economy discount of $99.00 for a standard (mountain view) room.

"Wait a minute," I said. "I can get it with Expedia for $89.00"

"Oh... in that case, I can match that price," she says.

"I'll think about what I want to do," I told her.

"No, wait, you'd want to do it direct with me because I can guarantee what kind of bed you'll get."

"Hunh?"

"If you go with Expedia, you won't know what kind of accommodation you'll get," she warns me.

"I'll check with my party and get back to you," I stall.

I then checked Cheap Tickets and Orbitz and found Expedia did give the best rate. They also had only one room available so I took it! Granted I get the Mountain View, not the Ocean View but heck, why do I need the ocean view? I can see the ocean right outside my window from my bedroom anytime I want. Sheesh!

Lahaina Shores Beach Resort is $10.00 more (a night) than Lahaina Inn but it gives you a FREE Continental Breakfast, and it has a refrigerator, kitchen, plates.

Art usually handles reservations, but he made me do it this time. And this is the last time.

You see? I told you we're not always frugal. In times like these where we don't get to see our loved ones very often, every minute is precious.

Sigh....... now to book our flight to Maui!

Drowning

I have a poor memory. However, there are certain moments that are ingrained in that little bit of storehouse of my memory banks.

I was reading a Yahoo article this morning. It was titled, Drowning Looks Different Than You Think. It quickly brought back an image from early motherhood that sends shivers when I think of it almost 30 years later. This is a photo of Tiffany's first swim lesson. She's on the far left.

Tiffany was not yet four years old. Peggy of Musings of Meggie and I decided to take Aquacise, a class being taught by a neighbor while our kids took swimming lessons in the other half of the large pool. I would look over every so often to see how Tif was doing. There were about seven children with two teachers. It wasn't enough.

I looked over at one point to see Tiffany going under and the teachers occupied with another child, not noticing that she had disappeared underwater. She didn't scream. She couldn't. I could see the top of her head and I immediately started trying to run over. Do you know you can't run in water? I felt like everything was in slow motion until I finally found my voice to scream and get over to her. The teachers swung their attention over to her and pulled her up before I got to her and poor Tif was sputtering and crying.

She didn't learn to swim that summer. When she was in grade school, her friends were joining a swim program and she decided to do it, too. Tiffany eventually became a very accomplished and graceful swimmer winning quite a few swimming ribbons and trophies in high school. She was also part of a synchronized swimming team.

However, her early start in water was frightening and as this Yahoo article mentioned, drowning victims often cannot yell for help.

I know.

Keeping Our Heads Above Financial Waters

We've always believed in saving for our future. I think we've done pretty well. I just saw this article in the Yahoo news and found that we did a lot of what others have done to keep financially sound.

1. Buy things you can afford without going into debt: We save up quite a while before we buy a car. We also make our cars last at least 10 years instead of changing to a new model on a whim.

2. SAVE for the kids education: From the time our children were born, Art had a part of his salary deducted to buy savings bonds for the kids' education. Even when I went back to teaching and could pay for the kids' education with my salary, he kept saving. (I could pay for it because the kids went to the University of Illinois which is a state school and reasonable.) Tif's college fund was handed over to her when she got married as a little nest egg. Jon wants his dad to keep handling his nest egg which is maintaining it's value and isn't doing too badly even in this horrible economic climate.

3. SAVE for retirement: We always maxed out my 403b tax deferred savings plan from school. We regularly contributed toward our IRA. Art made sure the kids did, too. If they couldn't quite afford the $2,000 a year Art would invest it for them.

3. Live Under your means: We rarely bought our kids new clothes or toys. I went to a ton of rummage and garage sales to get their school clothes. Why buy new toys? Kids usually tire of them so you can get beautiful almost new toys everywhere. And books! Especially books! I had over 500 books for the kids always sitting on their shelves for them. When they outgrew the books, I used them in my classroom. We also bought our furniture at garage, house and estate sales, not to mention household items. Thus our furniture style would be what we call eclectic. My son says it's mix matched. My daughter just shakes her head.

4. Make your own lunches: Art always brown bagged his lunch and made mine also.

5. Avoid eating out: We rarely ate out at fancy restaurants, but found the cheapest eats we could. Actually, we do now have our own personal chef since my mother likes doing the cooking... and gardening, too.

6. Cut your own hair: I cut everybody's hair until the kids got to be teenagers and refused to allow me near their heads with sharp objects.

7. Do your own home renovations: I was lucky. Art could do most of the home renovations himself. I can caulk and paint, even though I HATE it.

8. Clean your own house: I always cleaned my own house. It may not have been as clean as those who had maid service but it was good enough. I think. Now that my eye sight isn't so good, my house is even cleaner.

9. Keep track of your finances: Art always made sure he knew what the state of our finances was and keeps an efficient record. We had a financial consultant who also worked with us once a year to review the stocks and bonds we purchased.

10. Diversify your savings: That's what Art keeps telling me. He's got stuff in banks, stocks, bonds and heaven knows where else, because (don't scold me) I don't know.

11. Discount coupons: Definitely!

12. Avoid movie theaters: We try to watch stuff on the VCR or DVD player. Art still refuses to do cable, but I am rather liking Netflix.

13. Buy books second hand: Don't get mad at me, authors out there. However, books are expensive. We either buy them at second hand book sales or borrow from the library.

14. Research before you buy: This drives everybody crazy including me, but we wait a long time before buying anything, researching, asking, checking every store in a 30 mile radius.

15. Donate wisely: We always gave a percentage of our salaries to charity through work. We also made sure we donated wisely. We accumulate all the charity mail throughout the year, organize them alphabetically, check their expenses and do our contributions at one time so we don't do 50% of our contributions for only breast cancer which is easy to do since they advertise heavily.

16. Plan our driving: We try to save up our driving so we can take care of several errands at once instead of doing a lot of trips; saves on gas, saves on pollution. We'll even pick stuff up for relatives and neighbors if we're going a distance to get something.

17. Farmers Markets: We are mindful of food sales. My mother has prices memorized at all the stores. We go to farmers markets and Art does feel a twinge of guilt when he goes to Foodland supermarket and comes out with only the watermelon that was on sale. OK... it's true, sometimes he comes out with TWO watermelons.

18. Clothes: I needed some new Hawaii type clothes so I have bought new pieces for my wardrobe; All on SALE. I never pay full price. Well... I did one time. It was my Mother of the Bride dress at Macy's. Wouldn't you know it? I saw it at Nordstom's Rak for a third of the price the following year. Arrrghhh! This brings me to Outlet Malls. LOVE THEM!

We've done a ton of stuff that aren't and haven't been financially sound. Buying my mother's house in a modest neighborhood and building on top so that our kids and friends would have a comfortable place to stay was crazy. We felt we needed to do this because my mother did not want to leave her neighbors who were so kind to her. Everybody warned us it was insane, unwise, etc., including the lawyer/estate planner. We have sunk more money into this house than it will be worth in another 50 years, but we're not sorry. It's always ready for our guests. If any of our family is having their house termite tented they know they can come stay with us. However, we had the contractors only do the outside. We're doing the inside finishing ourselves... just as we did on the mainland. OK, OK so I'm living with construction debris all over the house (and will be for another 2 years or more)... Oh well.

Do you have another savings strategy?

Crossing My Fingers and Toes! (My Eyes, Too)

I can hardly believe it!

My daughter, Tiffany called from Illinois to say that there is a strong, strong possibility that she and her family might be going to Maui on Saturday. That's this coming Saturday. "But don't get your hopes too high," she says, "It could fall through."

Not get my hopes too high? Is she kidding me?

Her husband works with computers and has a job out on Maui. It's a hardship job I'm sure. They'd be there for a week and then come to Oahu for 5 days!!! I mean, might come to Oahu for 5 days!

Oh my oh my oh my oh my...

Am I getting my hopes too high?

Aack!

Now I've got a different bucket list...cleaning bucket, that is.
1. Clean the bathrooms.
2. Get the child gate.
3. Plan meals.
4. Organize KCs's toy shelf.
5. Find that potty seat!

Aaaack!

Oh... no, not yet... I musn't get my hopes too high.

Aaaaaaaaack!

Bill Clinton's Bucket List

I had to smile when I saw Bill Clinton's Bucket List.

Here's what he said according to reporter, David Jackson:

"What I'd really like to do, if I could have my wishes, I would like to live to see my own grandchildren," Clinton said today while delivering the keynote address at the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna.

"And I'd like to live to know that all the grandchildren of the world will have the chance in the not too distant future to live their own dreams and not die before their time."

Clinton is getting closer to his own grandkids; daughter Chelsea is scheduled to be married later this month.

That's the "A list," added Clinton, who turns 64 next month. There's also a "B list" of stuff that "would be fun to do but doesn't amount to a hill of beans whether I get to do it or not."

That list is topped, so to speak, by Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa.

"I'd like to climb Kilimanjaro before the snows melt," Clinton said. "I'd like to run a marathon before I give out. There's lots of things I'd like to do but it doesn't really matter whether I do them."

Art is laughing because he's got three of the four done. Granted there's a plural to the grandkids and that hasn't happened yet, but at least we've got our KC, and we can only keep hoping for the children of the world to have better lives and work toward it.

So what's on my Bucket List? This link explains what a Bucket List is. (Basically, stuff you want to accomplish before you kick the bucket.)

I do have the Family Genealogy project that I am working on.

Ummmmmmmmmm.......

How pitiful! I can't think of a thing. Art keeps dragging us off to see different places so traveling isn't a Bucket List thing. Whatever we want to see he'll eventually get us there. Right now he's planning for Yellowstone, Glacier and back to Japan. We'd like to see Ireland, China and the rest of the Far East.

Hmmmmm... so what else do I want to do?

Oh, for goodness sake! I don't know, and I've been sitting here thinking and thinking. I give up. Do you have a Bucket List? What's at the top of yours?

We Felt the Earth Move

We've had a tiring day. Art did his marathon run training this morning at 5:00 AM. I was in the garage painting the tool closet. We both ended up needing an afternoon nap. I was lying down reading when Art got up from his nap, joined me and was just saying I should rest until we were ready to leave for a graduation party this evening.

That's when the bed started to shake! What the heck!

"It's an earthquake," Art informed me. He grew up on the Big Island. He's used to earthquakes. I'm not. I'm thinking the house better not fall down when I've just finished priming the closet.

And then it stopped. I just checked the US Geological Survey and they'd already reported it.

Good grief! I hope that's it! How come I don't ever remember feeling earthquakes when I was a kid. This seems to be a recent development or maybe I just wasn't paying attention.

It was only a 3.5 earthquake; just enough to shake the bed.

As we got up to clean and put away our painting equipment I asked Art, "Hey, we were just lying on the bed when the earthquake struck. I should have asked, Did the earth move for you?"

Seen Any Good Movies Lately?

OK... Art has broken down and agreed to sign up for Netflix which I did right away. Then I saw the problem. I don't know what I want to see. Have you seen a movie that you could recommend?

We've just seen The Dark Knight (Batman) and wasn't very fond of it. It was too dark and violent for me. I like happy endings or something that looks like a happy ending. I hate Horror movies because they give me nightmares. I guess my brain doesn't separate real from fantasy well enough. When my brain sees something that looks like blood, it just thinks it is blood... not ketchup. I HATE sad endings. I like a movie that makes me feel good at the end, and no, it doesn't have to be Cinderella. We like Science Fiction (Avatar was great!), comedy (hated Borat), romance (Pride and Prejudice...sigh...), drama, historical drama, action, mystery, musicals, etc.

So then, seen any good movies lately?

Childhood Memory: First Day of School

I was looking through the closet and found this photo I'd sent my mother a long (long, long) time ago. It was the first day of first grade for Tiffany. Jon and I walked Tif to school and took this photo in front of her first grade class. Her teacher that year would be one of the beautiful people who would coax me back into teaching again. But that would be later.

On this day, you can just see the trepidation in Tif's eyes. She's the big sister but she's holding on to Jon's hand for support or maybe she's trying to reassure him that she's going to be OK (she hopes). Jon is worried for her. You can see a butterfly band-aid on his chin from our emergency room visit when his chin got popped open to the bone at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.

Tiffany was fine. She enjoyed 1st grade and loved her teachers. I know they loved her.

Jon was fine, too. His injury would be just one of many in his young years. He missed Tiffany all day, but would soon start pre-school himself. He, on the other hand, did not merely accept his fate. But then, maybe that's because Tif couldn't be there to hold his hand.

Why is this making my eyes tear up?

Treadmill Quandry

We took mom to the doctor and found that her blood pressure was elevated. Her other vitals were fine but the blood pressure, taken twice during the visit remained high. Our wonderful doctor is concerned and wanted to raise her levels of Altenolol. My mom is resistant. She doesn't want more medication.

The doctor wants her to reduce the salt in her cooking by using low salt soy sauce. Mom is resistant. She says her dishes just won't taste very good. She really doesn't eat a whole lot of salty stuff. Art tends to really watch the amount of salt we consume. We did get some low salt soy sauce on the way home though. The question is whether or not she'll use it.

That leaves exercise. Since mom injured her knee, she hasn't been able to do her daily exercise of climbing the stairs. We took her walking last night but that won't always do it because the weather doesn't always cooperate.

So now we're thinking of getting a treadmill. I wanted to get an elliptical but when I've tried them in stores my knees started to hurt a little. We really can't have that with mom. HOWEVER, choosing a treadmill is AWFUL! There are so many different kinds. Do you have a treadmill? Can you recommend something?

Carport Tool Closet

Our current project in our on-going house renovation saga is the tool closet in the carport. It's a mess! When we built the 2nd floor onto the existing house where my mother lives, we had to create double walls for many of the single walled exterior. We also had to put in a whole lot of foundation stilts on which the 2nd floor rests. Trying to cover the stilts (supporting poles) on the 1st floor was a challenge.

They put in several of those stilts in the tool closet so all the shelving had been removed. (In order for us to afford to do this, we had the builder only do the exterior of the house. We have been doing the interior for the past 4 years... slowly.)


The closet was filled with assorted junque and treasured, no longer used but maybe someday will, but probably won't sort of stuff. This is the left side.


This is the right side. Would you believe a large box of big rusty saws and machetes? My father used to work in the cane fields a long time ago. My brother also has a whole lot of maybe important, maybe necessary, but I'm thinking not... sort of tools. When he gets back from his vacation, I'll be corralling him to sort and toss stuff.

Notice that steamer trunk at the bottom. When Art's dad passed away and his mom moved to Califonia, they sent this steamer trunk full of very, very important memorablilia for Art. My mom stored it in the closet because it was so big.


The vent holes for the closet was covered up so Art had to cut holes in the plywood. You can see the support poles in this photo.


I thought he did an amazing job on bracketing the holes and screening it so termites wouldn't get in. They'll get in anyway since they can get into needle holes but it's good to try to put up any sort of barrier you can.


Then I went in and tried to patch up as many of the holes as I could. Art kept reminding me that it WAS the closet and nobody would really see it. He's setting up shelving today. I don't think he'll finish though he says he's going to try. I have a feeling it won't be until Friday before I'll be able to get in to paint it. Did I mention that I HATE to paint?


We brought the steamer trunk into the house. We hadn't seen it in years. It was full of newspaper clippings, old, old comics (Art's parents sold comics at their soda fountain-restaurant), old pen sets, Boy Scout memorabilia (There were a whole bunch of different news clippings when he made Eagle Scout since he was the first to accomplish it in 6 years from Honokaa.), high school yearbooks, some glassware, really old slides. Annnnd.... NOoooooooo..... MORE old photos to scan!

Epsom Salts?

Art just showed me an article that was in the Honolulu Star Advertiser about Epsom salts that I thought was pretty interesting.

When Art ran the Honolulu Marathon, Ed, his marathon advisor and our friend recommended he use Epsom salts to soak his legs to relieve his tired muscles. Art was surprised at how well it worked. I remembered then that when he nearly cut his finger off, they had him soak his finger in Epsom salts during the healing period.

The part that caught my eye was about bug bites because I've been getting really bad bug bites...huge welts that itch like crazy and last several days. It also reminded me of Susan from Stony River Farm who is suffering from Poison Ivy.

Here are a couple of links that show some wonderful uses for Epsom salts.
The Magic of Epsom Salts
13 Wonderful Ways to Use Epsom Salts

Here's what the Star Advertiser wrote about the Bug-Bite thing. "A compress of Epsom salt is useful for treating bug bites, bee stings and poison ivy. To reduce itching, the council recommends a compress recipe of 1 gallon of water and two cups of Epsom salt."

Whoa... that makes a whole lot of solution, but when I start getting desperate with my next bug bite, I'll have to remember this.