Celebrating Easter

We may be Buddhists, but we do celebrate Easter.  In fact we celebrate almost everything, especially if it's fun, happy and peaceful.

When our children were little they always participated in Easter Egg Hunts, often ate ham, had fun dying eggs and maybe made an Easter hat or two.

In this photo our very thoughtful and generous neighbor had given our kids these HUGE pizza-sized Easter cookies with their names on them.

Along with the resurrection of Christ, Easter feels like a holiday of new beginnings and spring excitement.  Art says he attended a sunrise service with an officer friend of his when he was in the Air Force.

Now that we're in Hawaii, Easter means dinner with family.  Unfortunately, our family is working this year so we'll be having Easter dinner with friends.  I'll be making a big healthy, carb free salad to bring over.

Art made this Easter card for our granddaughter, KC.

This is the front of the card.

 This is the inside.

Art actually drew this card over a month ago and mailed it to KC who has probably opened it this morning to see the first card that grandpa has ever made for her.

Unless it rains Art will be out doing an Easter sunrise jog.

I plan to enjoy a peaceful morning and would like to wish all of you a very Happy and wonderful Easter!

How will you be spending this lovely day?

False Alarm

My nurse practitioner, Kathy called to tell me that the REtest that she ordered of my blood work had come in.  What a relief!  I'm not diabetic after all.

The hospital lab had been having trouble with some of their results.  Kathy decided to be cautious when she heard other health care providers telling her they were getting some strange readings for their patients.

Meanwhile, Art had been watching what I eat like a hawk and telling me I should start jogging.

Now I can relax a bit.  I'm back at the PRE (diabetic) stage again.

Woo hoo!  It's true I'm not overweight, but I am predisposed to getting Type 2 diabetes.  There is a family history.  My mother and brother are both pre-diabetic also.

No, I'm not jogging, but I'll walk.

No, I'm not going to eat only vegetables, but I will be more careful about my sweets because my triglycerides are still somewhat high.

I feel like a huge weight has been taken off my shoulders.

And speaking of my sore shoulders....  (that will be another post).

Too Many Kindle Books to Handle

I'm writing a post a day just because it's a  personal challenge to see how long I can keep my brain moving.  However, it's been very difficult to do this and regularly see all the interesting things everybody else is up to.

Aside from all the everyday things that I need to do, I've had too many books to read on my Kindle and it's taking up too much of my time.  I put a bunch of books on hold at the Hawaii State Public Library and suddenly they're all coming up for borrowing every couple of days.  I'm uploading them onto the Kindle, but can't  keep up.  You do have to finish reading in 3 weeks.

I'm not putting any more books on hold for a good long while.  However, I have put a bunch of science fiction books on hold for Art.

Hmmm... Is that why his baseboard home renovation project is suddenly stalled?

Oops!

Bad News

Art and I went to Tripler Hospital for our check-up with our nurse practitioner today.

Kathy looked at my blood work and was not happy.  My cholesterol and triglycerides had gone up but the worst part was that my A1C had gone up to 6.7.

The A1C is the average of two to three months worth of glucose in your blood.  Acceptable is between 4.0 - 6.0.  This put me right into the diabetic range with no PRE attached to it.

My scores have been in the 5.7 to 6.1 range for a while.  I was overconfident and started getting sloppy with what I've been eating.  Art reminded me that while he was carbing up for his Half Marathon, we'd all been eating the same food which was very bad for me.

I've got to stay away from too many sweets and carbs, avoid fried foods, and sigh... anything that tastes good.  Just kidding.  I love veggies.

I'm feeling a bit depressed by this, but am resolved to get myself better again.  I know I can do it.  I've done it before and I'll do it again.  This was a wake up call.

I just wish it wasn't so jarring.

Sumo Tangerines

"Have you ever tried the Sumo tangerine?" asked Art's cousin, Renee.

No we hadn't.  Renee said it was a rather strange looking tangerine with a rather knobby, easy to peel skin.  Since we were walking to zumba together, she brought a couple over for us to try.  That was very kind of her because they run about $3.00+ a pound.

At one time the Sumo tangerine cost between $8.00 a fruit in Japan and South Korea which were the only places you could get them until some farmers in California starting growing them.  The Sumo tangerine was developed by a grower from the Kumamoto prefecture in Kyushu, Japan.  He created a hybrid between the easy to peel Satsuma tangerine and the large sweet California orange.  The Sumo tangerine is called Dekopon in Japan and Hallabong in Korea.

We weren't sure what to expect.  They were easy to peel, large for tangerines, juicy and sweet.  The fruit texture was a little different from what we expect a tangerine to be.  It was more like easy to separate tangerine sections but had the feel of an orange.  Oh yes!  It was very, very good.

It was also good that there were no Sumo seeds because I'm seeing two of my California Meyer lemon seeds starting to germinate, and I have no idea where I'm going to plant them.  Don't tell Mom.  She still thinks I'm nuts planting the Satsuma Tangerine. 

Hmmm.... maybe Renee has some space to plant a lemon tree.  I'll have to ask her.

2013 Kunia Orchid Show

Our friend, Ed gave us tickets to go to the Kunia Orchid Show which was held at Leilehua High School in Wahiawa.  Last year, our son Jon and Sarah were here so we went together.

It rained last year.  It was raining again this year when we went to pick up my brother, Dennis.

The flower show was set up in the high school gymnasium.

Orchids were also for sale.  Although mom loves orchids, she didn't feel she could give them the expert care they needed.

 

The variations were amazing. 

 

This green anthurium was called Midori which is green in Japanese.

There was also a bonsai exhibit and demonstration.

The miniature orchids were adorable.

Some of the orchid coloring was hard to capture on our cameras.

The display on the top photo showed the best orchids in the show.

This purple orchid was Dennis' favorite.  I can't remember which was mom's favorite.  She was like a child in a candy store, pulling us along and telling us to take a photo of every orchid that caught her eye.

I rather liked that fluffy white orchid.

I'm not so sure if I agreed with the best in the show.  It was really hard to capture the subtle pink coloring.

After spending a couple of hours there, we went back into the rain to have lunch at the Ginger House (Chinese restaurant) in Mililani.

All in all, it was a wonderful Sunday!

Never Too Late to Be Irish

We've been celebrating St. Patrick's Day ever since we moved to Chicago 35 years ago because let's face it, everybody in Chicago seems to be Irish.  In our family, my sister-in-law, Nancy and my son, Jon's Sarah is Irish.  

We were going to have our St. Patrick's Day party last week, but Diane was very ill so we postponed it to this past Saturday.  Diane and Joanne are my childhood to college buddies.

Our favorite corned beef is Cook's.  We were so happy to find it at the Commissary.  We'd originally bought John Morrell because we couldn't find Cook's earlier.  We'll be having another St. Patrick's Day party with my brother and his family.  It'll probably be Easter by the time we can find a time convenient for everybody in their family.

We also bought two kinds of Guinness beer.  Mom can drink all of us under the table and still walk a straight line.

I bought three packages of corned beef which gave us enough left overs to send home with everybody and for our dinner on Sunday.  I guess I didn't need two cabbages.  We had way too much left over.

Joanne and Rich brought over the Chinese chicken salad and boiled peanuts which were scrumptious.

Diane and Dave brought over these amazing cupcakes from Sugarlina Bake Shop in Aiea.

Apparently they had green ones last week, but they had these this week.

They were decadent!

Do you know I actually went out last week to buy that green blouse because I left my other green blouse in Chicago?  I'll be ready for next year in both places now.

And speaking of Chicago, here's the St. Patrick's Day card I made for my granddaughter.


I'm wishing you all a lucky day everyday, everybody!

Tired of Rainbow

I'm pretty grumpy.  I admit it.  Art will verify it for you.  We've had a stream of voggy (volcanic smog) days and I don't know if it's just that or maybe a bug I've caught.  My energy level is down and I am not feeling patient.

When I was resting, the doorbell rang and Art went to the door.  Turns out it was ANOTHER Rainbow salesperson. I took a photo of her from my window.  The box contains the vacuum cleaner.

Wasn't it a month ago that they got mom out of her sick bed, into our house and coerced her to listen to their vacuum cleaner spiel after presenting her with a FREE air purifier which they took away when I came home and saw what he was doing?  They did the same free air purifier trick with me the year before.  In that instance they asked if I would do them a big favor by accepting the air purifier and letting them know how it worked.

Yes I fell for it.  I like to help young people when I can.

After that we put up the No Soliciting sign.

This time we knew better and Art told her he wasn't interested in accepting her air purifier.  These salespeople never mention the vacuum cleaner when they first come to the door.  Art pointed out the No Soliciting sign next to the door.

"But I'm not selling anything," she said.  "This is a free gift."

Now that is a terrible lie and a scam.  And yes, I have contacted the Office of Consumer Protection, Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, State of Hawaii, but I don't think there's a lot they can do.  They're selling vacuum cleaners which isn't against the law.  They lie about the free air purifier.  They take up a ton of your time because most people try to be polite.  But they stay just on the safe side of the law.

When we attended the AARP Fraud seminar last week, they gave us permission to be rude.  Art was nice this time.  The next time they show up... because I really think they will, I hope I'm there because I will give them a piece of my mind.

Especially if it's a voggy, crabby day.

Horizontal Surfaces

When we first planned our home renovation project, Art drew up all kinds of plans.  He had a grand idea to try to get rid of horizontal surfaces so we wouldn't have to dust so often.

His plan was to not have any furniture with horizontal surfaces where dust could settle.  He designed lots of closets and drawers that would be behind doors.  He figured it would also create a zen like space similar to what they had in old Japan.  Heaven knows where they put their stuff.

Well once we actually met with our architect, those plans went by the wayside and we went with traditional spaces with traditional closets.

The only problem is that horizontal spaces seem to be a magnet for Art's "things."

This has been a bone of contention for us and is why we made sure he had his office and I had mine.  He is not allowed to mess up my space.  However, every time I see things all over his office, I have to close my eyes. 

Ah well... I suppose this is his way to prevent the dust from settling on the furniture.

One Big Lemon

Not much happening today and my brain has gone to sleep.  All I can share today is the weird Meyer lemon we picked.

I'd seen it slowly growing and ripening on the tree and wondered about the weird shape.  It looked almost like two lemons had merged into one.

The oblong shape was so intriguing.  We wondered what the inside would look like.

I don't think we've ever seen a lemon like this.

When squeezed it had about 1 1/3 cup juice.

I didn't know what to do with the juice so I poured it into two ice trays.  I think that's the most juice I've gotten from one lemon.

I've read that there are all kinds of uses for lemons other than lemonade.

You can use it as a natural cleaner for bathroom and kitchen surfaces.  Squeeze it on the surfaces and then wipe off the residue.  Ummm.... I haven't tried this, but they say for stains you just add vinegar and water to the lemon.

Fresh lemon juice over cut veggies and fruits will keep them from browning.

You can also use it as a weed killer by pouring it into cracks where weeds start.

If you know of any other uses, do let me know.

Close Call

Art was reading an article this morning about a three year old boy on the Big Island who died after being run over by a pick up truck that rolled in a driveway.  The child had apparently moved the shifter to put the truck into gear.  When the truck started to roll backwards, the child jumped out and was killed.

It brought back a terrible memory.

It's been over 30 years ago and still sends shivers up my spine when I think about it.  I'm sure we've all had similar moments and I know it must make all of us feel as though someone was watching over us.

It was spring, I think.  Jon was perhaps about three years old. 

Art and I were busy doing some sort of yard clean up.  Our station wagon was parked facing the street at the top of the inclined driveway that leads into the garage where there is also a crawl space.

Art was in the crawl space looking for some yard tool.  I was in the garage. 

I sensed a movement and saw the station wagon rolling down backwards.  Jon was in the station wagon looking frantic.  I quickly tried to open the door, but he'd locked them and then somehow disengaged the brakes.

So what would a smart woman do? 

Try to save my son, of course.  I somehow figured I had enough adrenalin to stop a rolling car and started pushing the back corner of the car with all my frantic weight.  I remember feeling my feet sliding over gravel as I yelled.

Art poked his head out of the crawl space, saw what was happening and yelled at me to get out of the way.

I did.... just in time.  If he had yelled just a few seconds later I would have been pancaked between the garage door opening and the station wagon since it had rolled down at an angle.

Since the back end of the station wagon was now wedged against the door frame and partly inside the garage, we built a ramp to tilt it away to be driven out.

When I looked into the station wagon, I could see Jon's frightened, crying face.  Art used his car keys to unlock the door so we could hug and scold him. 

As I gratefully think about the 30 years of health I've had, being able to travel and do the things I've wanted to do with my life, I realize how different it could have been.

And Jon, well....  Let's just say this was not the first or the last of his (mis)adventures.

A Bit of Green

When we first agreed to move back to Hawaii to watch over my mother, we weren't thrilled with the house she lived in.  There's no privacy in the way the rooms were modified by the previous owners.  We wanted to buy another house and have her move in with us.  However, mom did not want to leave her neighbors.  She said that through all the moves she's made in life, she's learned that if you have good neighbors, you have to treasure and keep them.

Art sighed and said, "If the mountain won't come to Mohammed..."

So we bought her house and renovated.  And since it's too expensive to build in Hawaii, we had the contractor do just the outside of the house and the inside is Art's "Retirement Project."

One of the things we really didn't like about this house was the lack of yard space.  It seemed concrete covered everything.  The nice thing is you don't have to mow the lawn.  The bad thing is it looks ugly as far as I'm concerned.

The concrete also prevented rain water from draining properly and during our visit back to Hawaii could see the water cascading down into the neighbor's property on the right.

During one rainfall, they said it was a continuing problem but they realized nothing could be done.

We thought about it and asked our contractor to cut a strip of concrete off and put in a drainage pipe so water from the back could drain into storm sewers instead of the neighbor's property below.

This is the drainage pipe.  The job was bigger than we first envisioned.

Dirt was then put back into the trench and it felt like we had a blank slate to work on.


I loved the thought that we could finally have some greenery.

While we were back in Illinois my brother, Dennis took on the arduous task of landscaping the new "Herb garden".

We were thrilled with all his hard work. He knew that his mother would love the Japanese garden effect.

His basil plant grew tall and luxurious which he loved because he makes pesto whenever he can.

The lemon grass (which we've removed) and rosemary also grew to monstrous sizes and kept threatening to overrun everything.

It was driving mom a little crazy, so Art and I dug up the rosemary this week which took up our entire garden recycle bin and planted a couple of basil plants.

We're keeping our fingers crossed that the basils will do well. 

Mom is happy because she loves the idea that her favorite son will (hopefully) have basil leaves to harvest again someday.

And now, Art and I will step back a little because gardening what little we have is Mom's domain and she must be getting a little nervous with us puttering in her area.

One of the loveliest memories I have of the renovation is our neighbor visiting with a box of mangoes after the herb garden was done and letting us know how much they had appreciated our efforts.  It's nice to be as good a neighbor as you can be.

Time for a New Mailbox

We tried the Loctite spray to seal the rust two years ago.  We then painted the mailbox so that it looked wonderfully new.  I was so pleased....for a while.

However, this is what it looks like now.  The rust is seeping through again!

Aggravation!

I think it was seeing our neighbor putting up a new mailbox that did it.

Art decided to just replace the old mailbox and go with an aluminum mailbox this time.  Steel rusts too quickly in Hawaii and plastic crumbles and cracks.  We have no idea what will happen to an aluminum mailbox.

We had to buy new brackets and instead of using the galvanized screws that were provided, Art bought stainless steel screws.

Within a couple of hours, we had a new mailbox.

The mailbox cost only about $22.  I'm wondering why we didn't do this two years ago instead of huffing and puffing about the old one.

Inner Strength

We were having our once a week hot dog indulgence at Costco one day when I noticed this pigeon.  You know I'm not a great fan of pigeons, but this fellow caught my eye.

He was hopping around on one foot.  Every so often a mangled or badly formed foot would unfold and then retract quickly if the bird lost his balance.

I admired how he was able to move and could see that he was pretty healthy.

It reminded me of our nephew, Shawn who was blind from birth with retinoblastoma.  Both of his eyes had to be removed when he was five weeks old.  It was devastating for all of us, but he never let it be an excuse for not  trying his best. 

Tiffany and Jonathan with their cousins, Shawn and Barry

His parents helped him to learn Braille and get to where he wanted to go on the bus.  Shawn developed a love for music very early and was discovered by a Hawaiian artist named Henry Kapono.  Shawn eventually had four CDs put out.  It was a thrill to hear him on the radio.  Life wasn't easy for him.  There were struggles. However, he is now very happily married, can cook and still plays music professionally. 

My brother, Dennis and sister-in-law, Nancy did their best to make sure their son would be able to live independently.  I'm so happy for all of them.

I have seen quite a few children who were able to overcome the challenges that life handed them and marvel at their resolve.  Is it something that is just within their own hearts that they're able to do this?  Is it the adversity that creates the strength for them to push past the barriers to their happiness?   Is it the type of nurturing and instruction they are given?

I was just wondering as I looked at that pigeon hopping along so expertly.

Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon

Our daughter, Tiffany had sent us tracking information for the Rock 'n' Roll (Half) Marathon that she and her brother, Jon were going to participate in along with Tiffany's friends, Jane and Mary.  This was a great opportunity for brother and sister to do something together again.

Jon was finishing his finals at Johns Hopkins so it was a rather tiring week for him but he was looking forward to having this time together with his sister again.

Tiffany and her two friends arrived in D.C. from Chicago on Friday and went to the Rock 'n' Roll EXPO with her friends Jane and Mary, but Jon had to go later after his class.

Tif sent text message photos of the EXPO which we loved.

"I don't know if I can finish," said Tiffany.  "My knees really hurt after I did my last run.  If they hurt again, I'm going to stop and not take the chance of damaging them."

Then there was 70% threat of rain that was forecasted. This would be a different kind of rain than what we get in Hawaii.  30,000 runners would be really suffering if that had happened.

Since Tif's friend, Jane is a doctor, I was confident that she'd be well looked after.  Jon had not been able to train much so we weren't sure what would happen.  We knew he'd finish because he is a very determined athlete.  He just won't quit.  This is why he worries us more than Tif.

Although Tif did send that tracking information for us, there is a six hour time difference between Hawaii and D.C.  We figured their race would be starting around 1:30 AM, Hawaiian time.  We decided to wait until we woke up to check.

There was no text message in the morning so we were a little concerned.  It turned out that they were all eating a celebratory lunch by the time we woke up.

What a relief!  They'd both done even better than expected.  It's a little humbling to think they finished their 13.1 miles in MUCH less time than I did walking the 8.15 miles in the Great Aloha Run.  (It must have been my bathroom break during the race.)

Both kids were exhilarated and said the temperatures were in the 50s during the race and no rain at all.

Art and I are proud, happy, relieved and excited for them all.  However, the best part for me was to see brother and sister together again.  When Jon was born, Art and I hoped that they would have the kind of happy sibling relationship that we did.  They do, and that's what we celebrate today!

Along with St. Patrick's Day!!!  Happy St. Paddy's Day, everybody!

Planting the Satsuma Tangerine Tree

Mom recruited our neighbor to tell me that planting my new Satsuma tangerine tree so close to the house would be a bad idea.  They thought it would be best in the back of the house.

However, there's not a lot of light there.  I figure fruit trees need lots of light.

It just so happened that the University of Hawaii Master Gardener program is open to the public on the second Saturday of each month.

Perfect!  I took a photo of the place I was planning to put the tree and we went to the Urban Garden Center to ask for advice.

We met Wally the Master Gardener and we showed him the photo.  He suggested putting brick type slabs to block the roots from going toward the house.  He also said we could prune the tree to control the branches from hitting the house, but not too much because fruit grow from the tips of new branches.

First we dug up the Mickey Mouse plant and planted it out on the parkway.  I don't know if it will survive because the root ball I dug up was somewhat small.

To be honest, it was me who dug up most of it which might be why Art decided to take over.

Now that we had the hole, we gathered our equipment along with the 5 patio bricks we bought from Lowes.  They had a better selection than Home Depot.

We went as deep as we could stand to dig because it was exhausting, and inserted the patio bricks to block the roots from the house as advised by the master gardener.

We added the seed starting soil and some wood compost to the rather clayish dirt that was at the bottom of our hole.  We poured a little water in to moisten the bottom.  The tangerine plant was placed into the hole, being careful to have what looked like the grafted point above the soil level.

Now to clean up the mess and put back the gravel and replant the akulekule.

And there it is!

I have high hopes that it will grow despite the threat of fruit flies or whatever else could attack it.

I can almost taste the tangerines now.