(Day Before) New Years in Hawaii

There's a lot of New Year's traditions that I'd forgotten while we were away for 35 years on the mainland.

One of them is to pay a visit to and offer flowers at the graves and niches of our departed family members and friends. This is especially important to my mother so we took her to Nuuanu Memorial Park this morning to place flowers at the grave and niche of my grandmother and father. Yesterday, we took her to the temple to place flowers and offer a prayer for her dear friend.

After a happy visit with my aunt and cousin (who live nearby) we took mom to commemorate the last day of the year at Gyotaku restaurant.


Mom and Art ordered the lunch special with sashimi (raw fish), shrimp and vegetable tempura and teriyaki chicken.


I'm not a big sashimi fan so I stuck with California rolls for my sushi, karaage (fried chicken), shrimp and veggie tempura. The dishes also came with a salad and miso soup. I have not been good with my diet this holiday season. I will have to really turn myself around next year.


Kalei was our server and she took our photo for us. The food was REALLY fantastic and we left so stuffed that we knew we'd have to take a nap this afternoon.


I was surprised to see this Believe It or Not comic strip in the Chicago Tribune at least a couple of decades ago.

It's very true. Even though I was gone from Hawaii for three decades, I still felt compelled to finish my newsletters and thank yous before the year was out. We also had to pay all our debts, organize our junque and above all CLEAN the house.

Hmmmm... what happened? Our house is not totally cleaned this time. I've been working so hard to finish the newsletters, etc. that I haven't gotten around to house cleaning. My mother has done her area, of course.

I'd better go clean the bathrooms, change the sheets, dust the floors, organize my desk, etc. Art is snoring on his recliner after that huge lunch and early morning jog. Should I wake him to clean the windows?

The Big Bang

As of January 2nd, there will be a partial ban on fireworks on Oahu. It's about time.

Every New Year we hear of somebody who got badly hurt and ended up in the ER due to some child playing with fireworks. Often, it's grown-ups, too.

Dogs are upset by the noise and smoke and people with breathing problems really suffer.

And yet they say the majority of people want to keep using fireworks. We saw a whole bunch of tents on Kamehameha Hwy selling crates of fireworks. The drugstores and even Sam's Club are full of it.


If it were just the little firecrackers, I wouldn't be so much against fireworks. What happens is people misuse it. They unwrap the firecrackers and put the powder together to create a bigger bang. Our windows have also been rattled by some kind of bomb that causes the car's security systems to go off. It scares the bejeezus out of me, especially if I'm already asleep!

We had a friend who worked for the Lung Association. He was fighting for this ban 35 years go. Well... it took a while but it's better late than never.

Now... here's the problem. They're saying that because the ban takes effect on January 2nd, we're in for a horrendously noisy New Years tomorrow night.

Maybe I should get ear plugs?

I Did It Myself!

Woohoo! I did it myself.

I've been waiting and waiting for Art to unclog the drain. His first advice was to lessen the shower flow and use less water to give it time to drain.

Well it was getting to the point where now the water was beginning to pool around his feet, too.

He was planning to get a metal snake to put down the pipe and unclog it.

I poured Liquid Plumber down the drain a couple of times and it didn't do the trick at all.


I decided enough was enough. I used a screw driver to take off the drain cover. What I saw was disgusting! There was all kinds of blackish gray mold mixed with hair, etc. I had to yank it out and clean it. Then I plunged and pulled out a bit more.

Wow! Suddenly, it started draining perfectly! I don't think I needed to use the Liquid Plumber before. It just needed cleaning and plunging.

Art just added some bleach to kill whatever biota was left.

He's very proud of me for figuring it out myself. I just told him, "By the way... I'm thinking of hanging that new clock on the familyroom wall by myself, too. I'll bet I can do it. If I add a couple more holes in the wall to get it perfect, no problem. Don't you think?"

Ho! Ho! Do I hear him going downstairs?

Postscript: I just snuck down and checked. He's already put up the wall clock and is now sanding down the sticky door so it'll close more easily. I wonder what other chores we need to get done.

Friends and Mochi

Tiffany and her family left yesterday and today we've been catching up on things we've put on hold. We worked on our New Years newsletter and went to Office Depot to make color copies. We completed several other errands and returned home to start organizing our holiday greetings that we'll be sending out via e-mail or snail mail.

Yesterday, one of Art's high school classmates stopped by with mochi that his family had pounded and made together. He wanted to share some with us.

We decided to have the mochi this morning. Art boiled the mochi (glutinous rice) in water (to soften) while I browned the kinako (soy powder) and added sugar.

Then we put the mochi into the mound of kinako and enjoyed it for breakfast. Mom said she didn't want any because it was too much carbs. She says each patty is equal to a bowl of rice. Whoa! Oh what the heck! We decided to have it anyway because we only eat mochi once a year. It was wonderful!

Jim, one of our dear friends from Illinois called tonight. He said they didn't get our holiday newsletter and were worried that something might have happened to us. Oh dear! It's true that we've always gotten our holiday newsletters out in the first week of December. Oops! We'd decided to try doing New Years greetings this time.

Well... I guess I'll have to finish that first and then there's the holiday thank yous and the clogged drain. Then there's the New Years house cleaning. Yikes! I'm going to have a lot of catching up to do when I'm done. I wonder what you've all been up to...

A Memory of KC

"A panda cake, a panda cake,
Mama is making a panda cake.

Now a panda cake is a special cake,
It's not like any you've eaten,
It has apples and roots
And bamboo shoots
And clover honey for topping."

I told KC that her Uncle Jonny's favorite book used to be Panda Cake by Rosalie Seidler. She asked me to read it to her and then asked me to read it again. I heard her asking Art to read it again later.

I never could quite understand why Jon liked it so much. Was it because the older brother ends up in trouble and the little brother gets to have the panda cake? Was it because of the fun rhymes? Perhaps it's the cute pictures. I don't know.

What made it all the more fun for KC was the title page. There at the top, written clearly in pencil were the words Name Tiffany Room 107 Age 7 in her mother's 2nd grade handwriting.

Christmas in Hawaii

My daughter, Tiffany and her family returned to Chicago this morning at 6:00. They will arrive at O'Hare Airport at midnight, Chicago time. It will be cold, very cold.


However a good hunk of Christmas day was spent at Koolina Beach. Although they did get to experience the "Hawaiian rainy season" the sun came out enough that they were able to get three wonderful beach days in. KC was upset each day when it was time to leave the sand and surf. It's hard to believe that a year ago, she was afraid of the sand.

When they saw this little sand snowman that someone built, it reminded them of what awaited back home.

The house is awfully quiet now. We've put everything away. There was a downpour this morning when they left, but the sun has peeked through this afternoon.

I keep hearing KC's voice echoing off the walls.

I Love My Christmas Present!

Art has bought me a new monitor for Christmas. Ed, our son-in-law ordered the new 25" monitor for Art and also got more memory, a new keyboard that is ergonomic and I don't know what else. My computer is now upgraded and I have a hot rod of technology.

Woohoo! Ed did all kinds of magic to my computer and it is now humming smoothly. I wish everybody could have a super techie son-in-law like Ed. I am doubly blessed having Ed and my brother, Dennis watching over me.

It sure is a Merry Christmas!

I'm going to enjoy today as much as I can since tomorrow, they will be leaving to return to Chicago. But I don't want to think about that today.

I'll think about it tomorrow.

For today I'd like to wish everybody a happy, merry, wonderful Christmas!

New Glasses!

We went to Costco today to pick up my new glasses. It's the first time I've gotten bifocals. They're progressive. I chose a big frame to protect my eyes better from UVs. The technician said it's really a man's frame.

I like the frame. I hate the glasses. I just can't get used to the progressive bifocals. I almost got motion sickness from wearing them. The technician said I need to wear them for a month to get myself used to them.

It's so hard to find that "sweet spot" where I can read print as well as looking up for distance viewing.

I sure hope I can get used to this because I really don't like it!

Holiday Mailbox

Tiffany was a little amazed that we still had not replaced our rusted mailbox. She thinks the neighbors will be wondering about us soon.


Therefore, she came up with an idea to at least cover up the rust for a while.


Tinsel garland! KC loves helping with any project that her mommy comes up with.

Tif knows how hard it is for us to make up our minds about buying anything.


As if the garland was not enough, she decided to add these little reindeer.


I've caught a glimpse of a few blogs with gorgeous photos of their home holiday decorations. Sigh...

I thought this might give you a little chuckle.

Hmmm... perhaps the new mailbox will be part of our New Year's Resolutions. Then again, Art might like the garland idea so much that he'll keep it up until Tif and family return next year. Don't put it past him.

Chanukah Latkes

I was reading a book called Rainbow Candles to KC the other morning and I told her about Chanukah (or Hanukkah or Hannukkah). I mentioned how people of the Jewish faith eat latkes for Chanukah and how delicious they were.

That gave me the bright idea of trying to prepare some. I'd never done it before, but I figured I'd give it the old college try.

I got my Joy of Cooking book and found potato pancakes. I assembled potatoes, onion, eggs, flour and salt. I cheated and used my food processor to grate the potatoes.


I grated the potatoes, squeezed out liquid by wrapping the grated potatoes in some cloth and added the eggs, flour and salt.


The directions said to fry the potatoes in beef fat, but I opted for canola oil. We don't have beef fat lying around the house.

I drained oil from the patties on paper towels.


Took a while to fry them because I made waaaay too many latkes for our family. We decided to share them with our neighbors. They'd never had latkes before.


The latkes were a huge success! KC loved them and so did everybody else!

A belated Happy Chanukah to everyone who celebrates this happy holiday!

KC Plants a Pineapple

Art told KC that since she helped to plant the papaya tree, she could now help to plant a pineapple.

KC wanted to do it by herself.

She loved digging the hole. Art did have to stop her from making the hole too big.


Then KC transferred the pineapple crown from the container of water to the soil. You can see how roots have already started to grow.


Then she adjusted the crown so that it would stand straight.


Soil was pushed back into the hole.


The pineapple was given a drink of water and told to grow. Perhaps next year, KC will see a pineapple growing on top of the crown that she planted.

Downpour!

We'd been babysitting KC for a couple of days to give her mommy and daddy some alone time to jet-ski and enjoy the night happenings in Waikiki. The plan was to bring KC to join them yesterday for another couple of days. They planned outings to Waikiki Beach and perhaps the zoo or aquarium with her.


We've had a lot of forecasts for rain and thunderstorms that never happened. Well... yesterday we had a downpour! There was rain in every part of the island. What happened to the micro-climates?

After dropping KC off with her parents in Waikiki, we headed out to Ala Moana Shopping Center to do some shopping. Apparently there had been a power outage so some of the stores were not opened. I can't remember the last time I've been to Ala Moana in the rain.


What was there for the poor tourists to do? They couldn't do the usual tourist things. A lot of the stores were still not opened. They could see some stage shows at the mall which was nice, but what else?

Tif called a little later to say they might be returning to our house early if the rain continues. Poor KC... Perhaps they'll get to the beach later in the week.

Papaya Pickers

In 2008, KC helped Art plant a papaya tree. You can see that in two and a half years, the papaya tree has grown a little taller than KC.


KC went to help Art pick the almost ripe papayas. They needed a chair to reach the fruit.


I didn't get a photo of what happened next. Everything went well with the first two fruits. The third slipped out of KC's hands and fell. Art somehow managed to hold on to KC and catch the papaya by reflex before it reached the ground. I saw it happen and can still hardly believe it. Sheesh!

Children's Center

KC had a fabulous time at the Children's Discovery Center in Kakaako.

Art, KC's dad and my kids are all avid sports fans. (You'll notice I didn't say me.) KC had a great time swinging the bat at the ball in the batting cage. Looks like she's another sports fan in the making.

Another fun thing for KC to try was driving TheBus.

Then she tried her hand at being a news producer or manager. No, I didn't have to blur her face. She just couldn't stop moving so a lot of her photos are blurred.

Perhaps being a news anchor will be in her future. She does like to tell us what's going on all the time.

KC also got to see what her Uncle Jonny used to do when he was a firefighter in New Mexico.

She could have spent all day in the grocery store. It was interesting to see how carefully she selected the things to put into her cart. We noticed that although she first picked the smaller pint sized chocolate milk, she did switch it for the half gallon later.

The Japanese house seemed to have a lot of fun things to handle. We wanted to take a photo of KC wearing the beautiful and colorful hanbok in the Korean house (for her dad), but she refused to wear any dress up clothes today. She preferred to show everybody that we were matching.

After the couple of hours at the Discovery Center running about excitedly and trying to experience all the new things, we went for a noodle lunch at Zippy's and headed home. KC did not last 10 minutes before falling asleep. Once we got home, grandpa and grandma joined her.

Friday Musings

My super TECHIE son-in-law, Ed is here. In between having to do his own techie work, he's also updating our computer system. Art's laptop was seriously in trouble so Ed helped us get a new one for a really great deal.

I was going to buy a new desktop, but Ed felt I'd be better off just refurbishing and upgrading my present machine. He's working on that, too... adding more memory, a UPC hub (?), a bigger monitor, etc.

Since we're in the transitional stage and my desk top is right now being worked on, I'm using Art's brand new laptop without my photos.

Therefore, it'll be a bit before I'm back in full operation again.

In the midst of all the holiday rushing to and fro, I've received terrible news this morning from two dear friends. One has a grandbaby who will be undergoing a critical operation in the next few days. My other friend's husband has been diagnosed with cancer that has already spread.

It's made me stop in this holiday rush to contemplate what life might have waiting for us around the corner.

Tomorrow, we'll take KC to Discovery Center and spend the day with her after dropping her parents off in Waikiki. We'll take the day as a gift and make it something to remember and hold dear.

KC's Shave Ice Reward

I promised KC that if she was a "good girl" during the long flight from Illinois to Hawaii, I'd give her a shave ice (translation: ice cone) treat. They had a stop-over in LA and she said, "I looked for you when we got off the plane, but you weren't there. I looked everywhere and you weren't anywhere."


Well, she earned her treat so we took her to Waikele Outlet Mall. Close by is Sportmart and Old Navy. Between them is our favorite shave ice stand, Mountain Magic. We let KC have her very own shave ice cone for the first time.

I liked how Tiffany had KC go over to the proprieter after she was done to say, "Thank you."


As we were leaving, we called out, "We'll be back."

Learning From Your Children

You're never too old to see another point of view and learn from it.

I was just talking to my son and he said he did not like my post about people who send holiday cards with printed address labels and pre-printed cards with their names printed on the card itself and nothing else.

"That post sounded self-righteous, Mom," he said. "That friend spent nearly a dollar to send you that card. They might be just too busy, but they wanted to maintain contact. They obviously consider you friends that they want to keep and you are not appreciating it. That's not right."

Well, he's right. I am contrite and will take his admonishment to heart. It is a time to appreciate all the connections that friends make during this season and be grateful for it.

Happy Holidays, everybody!

Why I Can't Visit...

Our daily routine here has been turned rather upside down over here due to a very clever and persistent little person who knows how to get her way without demanding it. KC is very much wanting our attention.

As I got to my computer this morning, she kept talking to me and bringing me things to eat that she had cooked in her kitchen.

I am barely able to get my posts up. This morning KC gradually covered my keyboard area so I couldn't type.


It reminded me that I had other priorities in my life.

I will have a lot of catch up on after the holidays.