Bloggers Helping Bloggers

I had been bemoaning the fact that the 200 yards of 1/8" elastic I ordered in March had still not arrived. I had to therefore make masks with elastic that I found in mom's old sewing chest which were a little too wide, rolled up t-shirt material, some cord remnants I found in my drawer, etc.

I met fellow blogger, Honolulu Aunty several years ago.

She is an amazing financial wizard as well as an artistic, creative designer. And so... of course, she would also come up with out of the ordinary, gorgeous face masks.

When she learned that my elastic was taking months to show up and who knows?... might never show up... she decided to send me some valuable treasures from her own supplies.

When I responded that I just needed maybe 10 yards of elastic, she sent me twice that plus beads to experiment with, pens, magnets with recipes and yes, her incredible masks. Wow!

I was blown away!

I immediately used the elastic she sent to finish off the masks I had waiting and gave/sent them out.

What a relief!

Would you believe that as soon as I'd given out all my masks, I got the notice from Amazon that my 200 yards of elastic was arriving in two days? Sheesh!

When the elastic finally arrived I was disappointed to see that it was discolored, appeared dirty and frayed.

However, since my daughter had asked for some, I started unrolling it to send to her.

After about 30 yards I found clean elastic.

I'm thinking the quality control person was asleep or something and didn't see what was happening to this unlucky roll.

When I told Honolulu Aunty that I could send her some of my elastic, she said she had enough so I decided to pay it forward by giving some to my tai chi mask making hui (group).

And guess what? Myra (my tai chi mask making friend) shared some of their avocados and fabric as well with me.

So here I am. I was actually pretty much done with mask making, but I now have more material and more elastic.

Looks like I'll be back to my sewing machine. Honolulu Aunty says she's working on another pattern for her masks too. And she says she'll share it with me. How awesome is that?

Aloha in Times of Coronavirus

People in Hawaii are working very hard to follow the strict stay-at-home policy. On the few times we've been out to get groceries, everyone wore masks and all the workers in the stores have been super kind and friendly.

Last week, an anonymous donor paid for 2000 surprised kupuna's (senior citizens) groceries at Foodlands in Hawaii. Wow!

When my neighbor found out that I was looking for Scott's shop towels to be used as mask filters, he stopped by our house with a huge package that he came across from Sam's Club and refused to let me pay for it.

I cut out shop towel filters to pass out to friends, neighbors and relatives along with the masks I made. Now I was just waiting and waiting for the elastic I ordered in March to show up by slow boat from China.

Other wonderful people have also shown us such generosity and kindness that we are filled with thankfulness. This is the general mood we've experienced here and are so grateful for.

Then I received a text this morning from my very good friend, Myra who shared a photo taken by her husband, Cal when he went for a walk in the morning.

Someone named Sarah in their community had placed masks with washing instructions right on their wall for anyone who needed them.

I know a lot of people have been donating masks to hospitals and other charities all around the island.

I guess that would explain part of the reason why the national COVID-19 maps no longer lists Hawaii. We've had several days of having no new cases. How long will that last? I don't know. There were news reports over the Memorial Day weekend of party goers who did their best to undo the progress we've made so far. And they weren't wearing masks!

Not Watching Where I Step

Since I can't go to Zumba any more or Tai-Chi, Art and I have been walking outside before the sun comes up.

Art has a tendency to look down because you know he's looking for coins to add to his charity jar.

I'm always looking up to see if there's something of interest for my blog or to text to our kids in Illinois and Maryland.

While we were walking one morning, Art suddenly jerked me away which startled me. I looked at him questioningly and he pointed down.

It was a centipede about 5 inches long. I've never seen one on the road before. I did see one in the garden when we uprooted a bush during our home renovation.

I saw centipedes more often when we were growing up in a plantation village. Kids were always told to leave them alone because they can bite, but I've never heard of anyone bitten.

Still... I sure don't want to the be the first.

Maybe I'll look down more often from now on.

News in Hawaii

Hawaii has been grappling with the problem of tourism in Hawaii during this time of pandemic. On the one hand, Hawaii is extremely dependent on tourism for its economy. On the other hand, tourism and off island travel brought COVID-19 to our state.

With strict measures in hand by our governor and mayors, our infection numbers have come down. The few times we've gone out, we see local people and businesses willing to comply with the social distance and masking rules.

However, we're still seeing a number of tourists coming in despite the 14 day quarantine rules.

It boggles my mind that people would want to travel here knowing they must be quarantined for 14 days.

Well... now we know.

It's because most of those tourists aren't following the rules and are risking the $5,000 fine/1 year in jail possibility.

In fact several have actually posted themselves on Facebook and other sites bragging how they're breaking the rules.

We're also getting people coming here with plans to join our already over populated homeless areas.

It's a difficult situation.

And this really puts it in perspective for me.

Why oh why can't these people think about others instead of just themselves?

Reusable Coffee Filter

Coronavirus has certainly changed the way we do and use things. Lots of items disappeared from grocery shelves. Cleaning supplies, toilet paper, sanitizers, flour, etc. Another thing you wouldn't expect to disappear was coffee filters. People were using them as filters for their masks.

Therefore, Art had this idea....

He was thinking a reusable coffee filter might help the environment and enable us not to worry about restocking paper coffee filters. He found this Goldtone reusable 8-12 cup basket coffee filter on Amazon and ordered it after carefully measuring our coffee maker.

You know what? It did fine. After emptying the spent grains in a bag to toss, we swoosh the basket in a bowl of water to clean out the rest of the residue and empty it out in the garden.

Works for us.

Finally Facing the Funless Files

When I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was now bored since I'd finished making masks, Margie of Margie's Musings told me that it took her a week to organize her filing cabinet.

Gosh....

I've looked at my filing cabinet a gazillion times dreading and knowing it needed to be cleaned out and organized.

So I opened the first drawer. Stared at it. And closed it. I knew this was not going to be fun.

I didn't open the file drawers for a few days. There were sooo many files. In fact, I'd been running out of file holders and was going to get more to stuff in.

Then I tried digging into the file cabinet again.

Instead of systematically looking from A-Z, I checked out a few files first that had some interesting labels.

Under EXERCISE, I found this article about how sit-ups do not spot reduce visceral (tummy) fat but regular exercise like walking would do a better job of it.

Since I can't do sit-ups, I was glad to hear it since... umm... I do have visceral fat.

Then I found instructions for MAHJONG. We had a Chinese friend in Illinois who taught us the game and we bought a set at a garage sale. However, once that friend left the area, we didn't play it again. And here's the instructions. BUT look how many pages there are. Yikes! OK, I'll keep that file. We might need it in the months to come if we're still in isolation.

I found this in a file labeled as ORIGAMI. These are instructions for one of the best paper airplanes I've ever made. It even had ailerons (flaps on the wing to control lateral balance). I had my first graders make the planes (with a little help) and we'd go outside and fly them to see how they'd perform with the ailerons folded downward and up.

I'm going to have to do this with my grandsons. It used to be so much fun with my granddaughter. I wonder if she remembers doing it.

OK...

I finished one drawer and was able to thin out some of it.

I'm happy to say I now have quite a few free file holders.

I wonder how many more I can get once I get to drawer #2.

Looking Back to Mother's Day

Mother's Day was quite different this year.

We're usually away on a trip during Mother's Day. We would take mom out to dinner somewhere either before or after our trip. This would give my brother and his family time to focus all their attention on making it special for just her.

We would have been on a Viking cruise to the Scandinavian countries this spring until we had to postpone it to next year due to the coronavirus.

So yes, it was a different Mother's Day, but it was special anyway.

My brother and sister-in-law stopped by in the morning with an Anna Miller macadamia nut cream pie and card for mom.

We got to have our first ZOOM call with our kids in Illinois and Maryland. It took a bit of doing since we had no idea what to do. My 13 year old granddaughter, KC gave us instructions on uploading the ZOOM app and sliding to the right to find the "Gallery" so we could see everybody at once.

In this photo, my grandsons had asked to see the T-rex toy from our toy closet.

That was a ton of fun.

Our kids had also sent us gifts from the mainland which added to the special occasion.

Dinner was take-out sushi from Kozo Sushi with some sake that my brother and sister-in-law had given mom for Christmas. It was as good a time as any to open it up. Ummm... It was a little strong so I added some guava/lilikoi juice to it which mom pronounced as perfect.

All in all, it was a different Mother's Day, but perfect in its own way, none the less.

Scrabble-ing

When we lived in Illinois such a long time ago, we had fun playing board games with neighbors and other friends. Ummmm.... I remember one time playing Rumi-Blok with very good friends. He was an astrophysicist at Northwestern University. She was a mathematician.

If you know how to play Rumi-Blok you would instantly know this wasn't a smart move on our part.

Sheesh! What were we thinking?

Yup. Numbers. And I have never liked math much. It always amazed me how I could convince my first graders that math was fun and easy to learn.

Anyway, how did we do with our friends? We were slaughtered! Pitifully! Did we have fun! You bet. I recall there was a lot of laughing.

Our kids have learned to love board games too. Our son often gives his niece, KC board games and whenever we've visited them in Illinois, Kalani can hardly wait to play another game with Uncle Keola. In fact, one of their favorite board games was a collaborative game called Pandemic. Yup. Pandemic.

Anyway, when we moved back to Hawaii over a decade ago and knew the kids would be visiting us we stocked up on board games......

which we never played with, most never even opened. The kids had too many other things they preferred doing like... going surfing, swimming, hiking, etc.

With Coronavirus keeping us homebound, I took out a game again. I avoided Rumi-Blok. I learned my lesson with our astrophysicist-mathematician friends. Art is an electrical/environmental engineer. When I took out Scrabble, Art groaned. He said I was much better at spelling. And it's true. I am a better speller.

So who won?

I was slaughtered. Badly. I was ignominiously pulverized.

282 points to 214 points

Sigh... Even Scrabble requires a lot of strategizing, calculation, scheming, plotting, etc. Art seemed to know exactly where I planned to go and would block it. He also planned his words to constantly hit the Triple Word Score whereas I just went for the fastest word I could think of. Arrrghhh...

Before going to sleep that night, he hugged me and said, "Thank you for letting me win, Sweetie."

Riiiiiigghhhhhttttt.....

How Old Do You Feel (In Your Mind)?

I remember talking to my mother-in-law when she was staying with us one summer for a little over a month so very long ago. Everyone loved her. One of her legs was already amputated from loss of circulation. She'd had a double mastectomy and was in pain most of the time from rheumatoid arthritis that crippled her hands. She still continued to write regular letters to us until almost the end. I couldn't have been gifted with a more amazing, beautiful mother-in-law. Despite her pain and handicaps, she never complained, was always cheerful and thinking of others.

She loved all of us, but I know how much she really cherished her two grandchildren, Tiffany and Keola. Mom slept in the same room with Keola (in his crib) which she really enjoyed. He loved spending time with her. One day, I looked in and saw he had fallen asleep on her lap. I was worried that it must have been awfully uncomfortable for her so I was going to pick him up, but she motioned me away. She watched him sleeping for about an hour and I still get a little teary thinking of that time.

Oh dear... I got distracted from what I was really going to write about.

Dang... my brain is having a hard time sticking to a subject.

Anyway, back to what I was planning to write.

My mother-in-law and I were having a conversation about life and all its ups and downs. She told me that despite her aging body, her thoughts and emotions were still the same as when she was 16. I remember wondering if that would be true for me some day.

So here I am at the age she was when she passed away.

And I'm looking back and remembering.

No, I'm not who I was at 16. I was too muddled then and trying to figure out what was what.

I think I'm more 40 in my brain.

Maybe.

How old do you feel?

The Lions of the Art Institute of Chicago

I saw something online about the lions outside the Art Institute of Chicago.

Here we were walking toward the Chicago Art Museum a long time ago.

The famous lion statues have been dressed up in past to celebrate Chicago glory.

In 2005, it was the White Sox World Series win.

In 2016, it was the Chicago Cubs' amazing World Series miracle. (I still can't believe it.)

And now, here it is.

The lions are masked with the flags that represent Chicago.

"The Chicago flag consists of 4 red stars with 6 points each. ... The first star on the left is to remember the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The second star represents the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. The 3rd star commemorates the Century of Progress International Exposition of 1933. The 4th star added in 1939 represents Fort Dearborn."

They've even masked the famous Picasso sculpture at Daley Plaza in the Chicago Loop.

I wonder if there's a statue we could mask in Hawaii.

We do have this King Kamehameha statue in front of the Aliʻiolani Hale building in Honolulu.

Well, maybe not.

OK...

How about the Duke Kahanamoku statue in Waikiki? 

I'll bet the Duke would approve.

POSTSCRIPT:

Never mind. Art just showed this to me.

Somebody already thought of it.    

Sam’s Club and Costco

We did it! We went to Sam’s Club on Wednesday. We debated going during the Kupuna (Senior) or dinner hour. Art checked google maps to get an idea of the traffic first.

There are a LOT of seniors in Hawaii and we’d heard how there are often lines to get into Sam’s Club in the morning. So we decided to go after our dinner.

We needed Sam’s Club because they carry a LOT of the local foods like kamaboko (fish cakes), tempura (another kind of fish cake), tofu, kimchee, Portuguese sausage, etc.

We walked right in. No line. However, there were NO sanitizing wipes or hand sanitizers for the carts. Happily I carried both. We also wore our masks. We were happy to see that everyone was wearing masks and workers wore mask and gloves. But there weren't a lot of other precautions in evidence.

Now... we needed to go to Costco.

My cousin happened to be there around 2:00 and sent me this text photo on Thursday afternoon.

Yikes! She said it was shipment day so supplies were ample. But oh my gosh! We decided against going.

Around 6:30 PM Art happened to check Google Maps and saw that customer traffic was very light. We dropped everything and dashed out!

We checked the parking lot first.

Lots of spaces. Good.

Walked right in.

Yay!

HOWEVER, again... NO sanitizing wipes for the carts!

I whipped out my wipes and handed it to Art.

We looked back and saw a woman and daughter frowning in consternation that the store wipes container was empty so I whipped out one of mine to give her.

She was so startled that she  dropped it.

I whipped out another one and gave it to her.

It's so nice to make someone happy.

The aisles looked very light.

Wonderful!

Yup. The meats were gone. However, there were ample paper towels and some disinfecting wipes. (Limit 1 per customer) Remember that friend who always shops for us? It was really great to be able to return the favor and get it for her. And no, we didn't need those items.... yet. I was told that if I had brought my Costco card, we could have bought two. Nice to remember.

Everyone was so courteous, friendly and cooperative. And EVERYONE was wearing a mask!

The checkout line moved very quickly and there were partitions separating customers from cashiers unlike Sam's Club.

As Art used the pad to pay for our purchases with his credit card, I waited with my sanitizing wipes to clean his fingers and card.

All in all... yup. We're quite pleased with ourselves.

We still have a couple more places we need to shop at in order to be set for another month or more. But after that, we'll be on lockdown again.

Our children will be happy.

Checking Google Maps Before Venturing Out

It was time to go grocery shopping after staying home for 6 weeks. We'd done fine with all our preparatory stocking up before locking down and especially with friends and relatives stopping by with additional supplies.

However, we couldn't go on like this for a year. We needed to stock up once more. Besides, Hawaii's number of infections had flattened and now the governor was calling for a gradual easing of restrictions. You know the infection numbers will rise again so this had to be the time to run out again.

I asked a lot of friends what the best time would be. They all told me that dinner time appeared to be best. There are Kupuna (senior/handicapped) Hours but Oahu has a LOT of seniors so it's not necessarily the best time.

Someone had mentioned to Art that he could use Google Maps to show you what the traffic was like in certain areas.

You first type in where you'd like to go.

Then scroll up.

The blue shows you the typical times. The red is what it's like when you're checking the people traffic.

It doesn't seem to show you the Kupuna hour traffic though.

Still... this was very helpful.

Melting Thread!

OK... I know I said I was done with mask making, but I got bored so I made a bunch more with another 100% cotton aloha shirt that a friend had given me to repurpose.

Well... while I was ironing it, this is what happened!

The blue thread actually melted. Granted, I'd forgotten to check what I had the iron set at. It was on the highest heat. It gets hot enough that it can scorch paper. I know. I tested it later.

I forgot to take a photo of the initial melting because I was in shock. This photo was taken after I removed the melted stitches and resewed it.

I checked what kind of thread I was using. It was mom's polyester thread. I resewed it with cotton covered polyester.

Wow!

I mentioned it to my daughter and she said the same thing happened to her.

I checked online and found this on Banasch's Sewing Supplies:

"Polyester thread is a synthetic all-purpose thread. It is a good choice for most machine and hand sewing projects. Polyester thread works well with stretchy fabrics as it has much give to it. Because of the wax or silicone finish that often covers this thread, it slips through the fabric easily. Invisible polyester thread is also available and is an ideal choice for some projects."

"As stated earlier, cotton thread has been used since the dawn of human existence. Even though it has been around a while, it does have its drawbacks. Cotton thread has low stretch and tends to break easily. However, it’s a good choice when sewing delicate fabrics and garments like lingerie."

Well, it didn't mention here about it melting!

We are learning new things with COVID-19. I just didn't know it was going to be about thread.

Meticulous vs. Quick and Happy

Art is an engineer. He's into detail, planning and careful execution. His daughter knew this and sent him a 1,200 piece puzzle which has been a happy way to spend a chunk of his Stay-At-Home time.

After a week, he had to limit his time from 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon to an hour each because he didn't want to finish it too quickly. He was enjoying it too much.

As for me...

This was too painful.

However, Kristi of Thickethouse recommended a Jigsaw Puzzle website called Jigsaw Explorer that was just my speed.

https://jigsawexplorer.com/

It took me 9 minutes and 2 seconds. Yup! Just my speed. When you complete the puzzle, you even get an applause. Yay!

Art says it's too easy because the pieces do not turn. So I challenged him to see who can finish faster. Did he accept?

Oh yes! 

Did he win?

Well.... yes...

POSTSCRIPT:

You can also choose your own photo and number of pieces to make a puzzle which is pretty darn cool.

Our Favorite Painting

We went to Paris in December, 1997. It was the first trip we took without the kids. Tif had begun a job and Keola was in college. It was my school winter break so we decided to fly to Paris. I loved being able to get back to my classroom to tell my first graders about our experiences.

One of the first places we went to was the Musee d'Orsay. The art museum was once a railway station built in 1898-1900. It was converted into an art museum in 1986.

Art and I do enjoy museums. The kids joke about how we dragged them to countless museums when they were younger.

Without the kids, we were able to browse through all the art exhibits at our leisure.

I tend to like impressionistic art. I do like Monet, Pissarro, Cezanne, Cassatt and Van Gogh. I like color. Art likes realism.

As we gazed upon each painting, we suddenly stopped in front of one painting and was rooted to the spot. (We don't often agree on artwork.)

This painting by Jean-Francois Millet was originally called Printemps à Barbizon (Spring at Barbizon) and was done in 1873.

The painting shows a light spring rain that produced a double rainbow in the distance. There's a man waiting under the shade of a distant tree.

It's hard to find a picture that depicts how amazing we found this painting. I really wanted to find a poster, but the gift shop didn't have it. I think I got this photo from a postcard I was able to buy.

Maybe it's the dark foreground pulling you into the painting and into the light.  Maybe it's wanting to follow that rainbow. Maybe it was the road that made Art and me think about the roads that we've traveled.

I don't know, but we still think about that painting now and then.

Do you have a favorite painting or artwork? What do you like about it?

Dwindling Supplies

When it looked like Hawaii would be locking down and our kids on the mainland kept admonishing us to STAY HOME. We prepared for obeying that stricture at least a month.

We made sure we had a 90 day supply of medication.

We did not hoard sanitizers or toilet paper but bought one bundle from Costco. Granted I did get carried away that one time and bought an 8 pack of spam while we were there because of the friendly encouragement I got from other shoppers in line who couldn't believe I didn't pick it up.

We froze meals for the three of us.

I found an NBC site online that had lots of suggestions for what to stock up on.
Frozen fruits and vegetables, dried and canned fruits, canned veggies (it's part of our hurricane supply already), long lasting veggies and fruits like broccoli, carrots, potatoes, apples, pears, etc.

Canned fish, canned beans, nuts, eggs, milk, bread, cereal, popcorn, oatmeal, honey, butter, etc.

Like a lot of people in Hawaii, we have two refrigerators. I have one friend who has THREE! This is our extra one. I think it's because we freeze things like pasta, anything with flour, nuts, grains, cookies, bread, etc.

Notice that we still have quite a few chicken and turkey meals. Mom breaks up a pound of hamburger into three balls because we really don't eat a lot of beef.

That box of wine lasts a couple of months. Yes, there's only 1 apple left.

And here's our main fridge. Hmmm... we do have a lot of onions left and a bit of carrots. A very wonderful friend recently brought us a bag of clementines.

The ice maker takes up a lot of space, not to mention all our cooler packs. However, we do have quite a bit of frozen fruit here along with some fish. So we're doing OK meat wise. And mom has a lot of natto (fermented soy beans) which she likes to have for lunch with rice.

However, we need to shop for almond milk, eggs, fresh veggies, cereal and a few other staples.

This is the new normal though and I think it's time for us to cautiously venture out into the world (a little), especially since Hawaii's COVID-19 numbers have stabilized a bit. We are still on lockdown until the end of May, but some restrictions have eased.

But yes, I'll be carrying sanitizer wipes and wearing a mask.

It's a spooky world out there.

OK... Now I’m Officially Bored

After the frenzy of sewing this past month, I’m pretty much done. I’ve given masks to everybody I thought needed them and there are so many mask-making friends and companies now that... well... I can stop.

Granted, I still have a bunch ready to go out to people. I’m just waiting for my elastic to show up that I bought on Amazon and is coming by “slow boat” from China. My kids have joked that it's probably coming by rowboat since it's been over a month since I ordered it.

So now what? I guess I could bake something, if I had the ingredients which I don’t. I guess we’ll go shopping in another week or so for the first time in 6 weeks.

Hmmm... shall I reorganize something? Should I clean something?

What to do? What to do?

Puzzled By Coronavirus

When our daughter realized that her father was getting rather bored at home, she decided to give him a project. He does like projects so she sent him something that would really tax his concentration.

It’s a 1,200 piece puzzle. Ummm.... I remembered that 800 piece puzzle that took four of us two days to do when we visited them this winter.

He's now glued to the puzzle table and has been working on it a couple of hours in the morning and another couple of hours in the afternoon. He's trying to entice mom into helping him but all she does is laugh.

I wonder how long this will take.

A Gift from Tzu Chi

It was a surprise to receive a package last week from the Tzu Chi Foundation. We were introduced to this charity by friends who have donated their time to helping others through this organization. We've since donated to their worldwide cause every year.

 The package they sent contained six masks. They're rather thin but would certainly prevent you from touching your face. I think I could wear it under a cloth mask just to add extra protection.

It was such a kind gesture. It's nice to know they are trying to help in such a thoughtful way. 

Mystery Beetle

I saw this beetle a (long) while ago at zumba and it reminded me of another beetle we saw in China in 2013.

Unfortunately, I wasn't careful when I took the photo of the Zumba beetle so it's rather blurry. We have so many invasive insects in Hawaii that it's really a problem.

The long antennae on the Hawaii beetle (which is too blurry to see) reminded me of the longhorn beetle we saw in Fengdu during our tour of China. My camera at the time just did not capture the silvery color. That Chinese beetle was so shiny all over with bright golden dots that we thought it was a toy. We actually stared at it for a while as it moved thinking it was some robotic sort of thing.

I would say it was the size of someone's hand, but I'm sure my memory would be exaggerating. Art is laughing and says it was about 2 inches long. OK, fine. But it was really big. I did do a blog post about Fengdu and that beetle in 2013.

Anyway, maybe our Hawaii beetle was a cousin?

............................................................................

It's rather weird to think that we were actually in the Wuhan area seven years ago. At the time, we were worried about bird flu.

Preserving Garlic

We haven't gone grocery shopping in over a month. We'd prepared quite a bit of meals before hand and frozen them so that we could be quarantined comfortably. We've also been dipping into our hurricane supply. Hmmm... hurricane season begins in June so we'll have to go shopping before then.

We were noticing that we'd had our garlic bulbs for quite a while and wondered if they would go bad. I picked up two of the bulbs and they sort of caved in... squashed... yuck!

But there was one bulb I thought I could rescue. I wondered if I should refrigerate or freeze them and looked it up on line.

According to Good Housekeeping, you could store them in mesh bags or woven baskets. Garlic lasts best in 60-65 degree temperatures. I can tell you that's impossible in Hawaii.

You can refrigerate them in the crisper drawer of the fridge where it's supposed to be protected from humidity.

You can also use a food processor or blender to pulverize the cloves of garlic with a little bit of water and freeze them in ice trays.

Okeedokee...

I decided to give it a try.

I peeled the garlic using my handy dandy peeler that my daughter gave me.

I stuck the cloves in my NutriBullet.

I pulsed it and then stuck blobs of them on wax paper with a sheet of plastic wrap to prevent the smell from stinking up the freezer. Granted, I can't smell it since I've lost my sense of smell and some of my ability to taste, but everybody else around here can smell every little thing. (No, no, I don't have the Coronavirus. I lost my sense of smell/taste years ago.)

I dropped the garlic blobs in a glass jar and put them in the freezer.

However, Art is now saying the Nutribullet smells like garlic.

Oops!