Blogspot PROBLEM!!!

Double Doggone it!

I decided to change my Header photo a day ago. I didn't change the shrink to fit button and was shocked to see what you are seeing now.

Aggravation!!!

I then slid the button so it would not shrink to fit and the white space grew really really big, but the picture remained postage stamp size.

It enlarged the photo, BUT kept the same postage stamp size and changed the blog description to two lines.

Aggravation!!! 😖

Soooo... I moved the button again to shrink the photo and that is what you're seeing now on my blog header.

I checked online and saw that other bloggers have complained about the same thing.

Therefore, this is just a little heads-up to all of you. Don't change your blog header photo for a while until Blogger gets this fixed.

Until then, I'm sorry but this is what my sad blog will look like for a while. Sigh...

Cooking With Metamucil?

Mom has been getting forgetful lately. I mentioned it to the doctor a couple of months ago but he said if it's gradual, I don't have to worry much about it.

It's gradual yes, but still disconcerting at times. Art and I do most of the cooking now although we have her make her favorite dishes because it's important to let her know that we value her expertise.

One of the dishes she loves to prepare is kabocha.

"Simmered Kabocha Squash, or what we call Kabocha no Nimono (かぼちゃの煮物), is one of the most classic and popular simmered dishes in Japan. If you are traveling in Japan, you will see this kabocha dish everywhere: in the bento box you pick up at the train station, as part of the side dishes of your teishoku (lunch meal set), or at the breakfast buffet in your ryokan (Japanese inn)."

Mom prepares this dish quite often so we figured she'd never forget how to make it.

Until now.

Art went down and wondered why my Metamucil container was out on the kitchen table. (My doctor had advised me to use Metamucil instead of Benefiber to bring down my cholesterol.)

Mom always keeps her brown sugar in that Folgers jar because it's easier for her to handle than to take the sugar out of a bag which can be messy.

For some reason, she says she saw the word REAL SUGAR on the Metamucil container and picked that up thinking it was her brown sugar even though the containers look completely different.

Uuuummmm....

I don't eat kabocha much because I figure it adds to my carbs, but Art did. He says it had a bit of an orange taste to it as well as a very sticky (lots of fiber 😖) texture. 

I have since moved my Metamucil out of her reach and perhaps we need to watch over her cooking a bit more now too. 

Sigh...

Have You Ever Had a Mountain Apple?

My nephew recently helped a friend pick mountain apples off their tree because the family did not care for them. My brother then dropped some off with us.

My brother and I grew up eating them because our father used to bring them home from the mountains where he tended irrigation ditches for the plantation. Art ate mountain apples because his uncle had a prolific tree and often gave them the slightly tart and sweet fruit. 

I got this from Wikipedia:

"Syzygium malaccense is a species of flowering tree native to Malesia and Australia. It is one of the species cultivated since prehistoric times by the Austronesian peoples. They were carried and introduced deliberately to Remote Oceania as canoe plants. In modern times, it has been introduced throughout the tropics, including many Caribbean countries and territories.

Syzygium malaccense has a number of English common names. It is known as a Malay rose apple, or simply Malay apple, mountain apple, rose apple, Otaheite apple, pink satin-ash and pommerac (derived from pomme Malac, meaning "Malayan apple" in French)"

Art really enjoys having this local fruit. I have a feeling it brings back memories of his childhood. Me? Hmmm... I like having it for fun, but it's not my favorite fruit. It's interesting to think it was cultivated in prehistoric times though.

Art's favorite fruit is watermelon. Me? Haden mangoes. What's your favorite?

Contemplating Cataract Surgery

Five years ago, mom's beloved sister, Grace suddenly passed away. The shock of it raised mom's blood pressure so much that her left eye erupted in a retinal hemorrhage that nearly caused her to lose eyesight in that eye. 

Her ophthalmologist and we have kept close watch for any recurrence and it has remained stable up to now.

Recently... her eyesight seems to be deteriorating in both eyes. The ophthalmologist has mentioned at each visit that cataract surgery is an option, but hasn't pushed it. I'm so nervous, that I haven't encouraged her to get it either.

However, would you believe I was watching Call the Midwife (Netflix/BBC) where an elderly nun finally got cataract surgery which enable her to see more clearly giving her a better quality of life that had me changing my mind. 

Surprisingly, mom wasn't opposed to it. It appears she just didn't want to impose on us about what it would entail.

I talked to several friends who told me they were happy with the surgery.

Soooo....

I informed the ophthalmologist who set up the date of the surgery which will be at the end of the month.

Prior to that we had the eye measurements taken. We'll have pre-op questions and answers and a COVID test before the surgery.

Then my cousin stopped by and mentioned that her mother-in-law had cataract surgery where the surgeon must have made a mistake because there was bleeding and she is now blind in one eye.

What? What? 

Sigh....

Disappearing Wonders Around the World

I saw an article on my cellphone news app the other day that showed a number of amazing natural wonders that had disappeared in recent history. It got me thinking. They showed Kaimu Beach. We called it Black Sand Beach on the Big Island. It disappeared when lava from Kilauea volcano flowed over and covered it.

We took our kids there in 1983. I wish I'd taken more photos of it back then, but who thought it would disappear? That's Art and Tiffany on the left of the photo. 

It got me thinking about other places we've seen that astonished us and made us wonder how long they would be there.

This was a 2013 trip we took mom on to visit some National Parks in Utah and Arizona. We were all amazed at how that sandstone rock just stayed balanced on that mudstone pedestal.

I got this from the Arches National Park website about Balanced Rock:

"Balanced Rock, one of the most iconic features in the park, stands a staggering 128 feet (39m) tall. While this formation may appear to be an epic balancing act, it’s actually not balanced at all. The slick rock boulder of Entrada Sandstone sits attached to its eroding pedestal of Dewey Bridge mudstone. The exposure of these two rock strata layers are ideal for the formation of arches and balanced rocks."

I've seen photos of other sandstone arches that have actually fallen. I wonder how long these will last.

In 2005, we were in Turkey and got to wade in Pamukkale's thermal pools. 

It was huge and breathtakingly beautiful.

However, whenever I think of amazing things that can't possibly last, I think of Nova Scotia's Balancing Rock.

It was one of those unexpected things you see when you go on a trip that you never planned on your itinerary.

We were at a small bed and breakfast in 2004 when we saw a photo that the friendly owners had on their wall of a balancing pillar.

They told us where to drive to see it.

The waves were crashing against the wall of stone.

It looked like I could just push that huge pillar over with one finger.

I looked it up and apparently it's still standing.

I wonder how long...

Favorite Dishwashing Pad?

A few years ago, a good friend of mine had a sister-in-law who made these gorgeous dish washing pads that sudsed up amazingly well. It didn't require much liquid dish soap and did the job efficiently. 

It was crocheted with some kind of synthetic yarn that was ordered from Korea.

On top of that it was so very pretty!

I ordered several to give as gifts and used them myself.

Eventually, the yarn became more accessible here in Hawaii and lots of people started making these dish washing pads.

I received a number of them as gifts.

We have very gifted crochet artists here in Hawaii. 

Uuum... I'm not one of them.

Unfortunately, the Korean yarn doesn't last very long and too quickly wears out. It also doesn't dry easily and does collect food particles.

Some friends even made dish washing pads using regular yarn.

Eventually, I found that in Hawaii's humid climate, these pads especially don't dry quickly.

I also saw online that sponges are breeding grounds for bacteria because they can't dry quickly and the little pores are nooks where food can get lodged.

I've read that some people put wet sponges in the microwave for a couple of minutes to disinfect it. You can also stick it in a vinegar solution.

 My daughter then showed me another Korean idea that she picked up at H-Mart (Korean store in Chicago). These are more like nets, but they also soap up well (not quite as quickly as the other type), but they can dry a lot faster. I also throw it in the regular laundry and hang them to dry in the sun.

What do you use to wash dishes?

Transplanting Orchids With Help From a Son

Mom had mentioned to us a long time ago that she needed hapuu which is a Hawaiian tree fern. She needed its bark to transplant orchids that were outgrowing their pots. I decided to forget about it since she already had four or five pots of it and the bulbuls often come to dine on the buds anyway.

Therefore, when we saw a rather pricey bag of hapuu at the store, I tried to discourage Art from buying it. He insisted that we should get it for mom. I told him that she already said she can't do it anymore and someone else would have to do it. 

Art said he would do it.

Riiiight.... 🙄  He's got a bunch of bonsai plants that are no longer bonsai.

Art bought it anyway and the big bag of hapuu languished on our patio for months and months and months. When I passed by it the other day I saw weeds growing in the bag. 

I told mom and she said she'd completely forgotten how to repot orchids anyway.

"What?!?" 

I told my brother that his mother would love to have his help with the orchids. He'd been too busy with babysitting his grandchildren for a long while, but had some free time now, so he was happy to come over. Granted, he said it's something he's never done although he'd seen our father do it decades ago.

Mom was thrilled to be able to spend quality time with her son again. And here's what mom (who repeated that she no longer has any idea how to repot orchids anymore) said.

When we went out to the patio, she immediately said, "Wait! You need 20-20-20 orchid fertilizer."

"What?!? You never mentioned fertilizer." I showed her other kinds of fertilizer we'd bought her before, but she said it had to be orchid fertilizer.

I finally showed her the 16-16-16 which I told her had the same ratio. 

"No," she said. 

"The ratio is the same," said Dennis. "It should work I would think."

"OK," said mom. Do you see who she believes the most?

Art set up a chair for her so she could supervise and put a drop cloth on the ground to contain the debris.

"Wait," she said. "You have to get the smaller pots. You need gravel at the bottom."

Dennis complied and then started to add the hapuu.

"Wait, you have to put fertilizer at the bottom and mix it." Mom continued.

"You have to clean off the pots well and separate the orchids." Mom instructed. 

"OK, now add more hapuu," mom continued, "and put some rocks on the top."

And so it went. Dennis, ever the loving and wonderful son that he is, followed her advice (which she no longer insisted she couldn’t remember how to do) while also doing what he thought was best and managed to complete all the repotting.

Here are some of the freshly potted orchids.

WORD OF CAUTION: Please don't follow what mom said because it's not exactly what we've seen online. However, we'll see what happens. Dennis says he just hopes they don't all die at once.

In the end, the most important part, the best of the best part was that mom had her son's complete attention for a whole hour and that was golden!

What Are Little Boys Made Of?

I wrote a post earlier about how we'd taken a photo of our granddaughter, KC with a 17 year cicada about 14 years ago.

I'd asked our daughter, Tiffany if she could take an updated photo of now 14 year old KC with the famous/infamous red-eyed bug.

"NO WAY!" was the unequivocal response. She said KC stayed clear of all bugs.

Darn!

As it turned out, the bugs are a lot smarter and knew it was too early for them to appear in the Chicago area.

I then told my son in Maryland about recording this historic event with our grandsons and he sent these photos.

The boys are fascinated by the huge bugs, picking them up and marveling at them when they're outside. According to Keola, the bugs are, as promised, extremely noisy.

I'm remembering this poem by the English poet Robert Southey (1774–1843)

What are little boys made of?

What are little boys made of?

Snips & snails & puppy dogs tails

And such are little boys made of.

What are little girls made of?

What are little girls made of?

Sugar & spice & all things nice

And such are little girls made of.

And yet, I'm remembering little KC loving flowers as a young child but still willing to stick her hand in a touching pool to see what sea creatures felt like. 

So I'm wondering if boys and girls are conditioned to feel a certain way or if that is just their nature.

Yes, my grandsons love toy cars, trucks and dinosaurs. My teenage granddaughter loves dancing and clothes. She's never liked dolls though.

I wonder what they'll be like in another 10 years. Stay tuned.

Pregnant and Bit By a Tick

I am busy now on another photobook project creating a set of albums encompassing almost 50 years of our lives. I'm now on 1975-79. 

Right now I'm formatting photos and I'll write in our memories later. 

All this is just to explain how I started thinking about this distant memory from 1975.

Back then, Art worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago. He met and became friends with a lot of other idealistic guys who believed that they could protect the environment. I got to know them too since they often came to our apartment for dinners and also took trips together. Most were bachelors and didn't think anything of Art bringing me along.

All this brings me to the memory of the notorious Wolf River White Water Rafting/Camping Trip. I was 5 months pregnant at the time and my obstetrician insisted that I stay on dry land which was fine with me. I knew the water was going to be very cold and the guys were all getting wet suits.

I think it was just one or two nights of camping.

However, when we got home, it was a shock to discover a tick tenaciously hanging on to my pregnant tummy.

Art, ever the Eagle Scout said it shouldn't be a problem. He'd just douse it with oil so it couldn't breathe and the arachnid was bound to let go of his food source.

Sounded plausible so he got oil and dropped in on the tick.

It didn't work. The tick didn't let go.

Then he had another bright idea.

He got a needle, heated it and stuck it on the tick. Would you believe it heated the oil quickly and burned me?!? Good grief!

The only other recourse he thought was to pull it off with tweezers which he did taking off a bit of my skin. 🙄 Yup. That was a surprise. Luckily, no part of the tick was left on me. It came off with the skin, I guess.

You can imagine what a story I had to tell the obstetrician on my next visit.

There were no more camping trips after that, at least not while I was pregnant.

Giving Mom a Haircut

I cut mom's hair a while ago and when I cleaned up the hair clippings, I noted that she still has quite a bit of hair.

Unfortunately, sometimes, I wait too long to cut her hair so she trims her bangs by herself and overdoes it so it's too short and uneven.

I get so used to seeing her that I often don't notice her hair getting long in about six weeks.

I wrote before about how she insists she needs camellia oil to keep her hair healthy.

I couldn't find camellia oil locally anymore and Amazon doesn't ship it to Hawaii so my daughter offered to get it for her grandmother for Mother's Day. 

Mom had been disappointed when we told her that it was no longer sold at Don Quijote and we couldn't find it anywhere. It's not cheap. A 2 oz. bottle cost well over $20 at our Japanese market a couple of years ago.

When mom opened her Mother's Day gift from Tiffany and family, she was absolutely thrilled. 

"How did she know I needed this so badly?" mom asked almost tearfully.

You know what? 

I've always figured that camellia oil was just something from her past that she clings to, plus the fact that it's from Japan so (of course) it must be good as the reason she believes it has such necessary magical qualities to keep her hair healthy.

But then...

I was just looking online for information about camellia oil and found this.

There's another website that says it's good for itchy scalp which I do occasionally suffer from. I feel like my hair is also thinning.

Hmmmm...

OK, it's true I've often scoffed at mom's attachment to this product. But now I'm wondering. Could it be? 

Hmmmm...

You know what? I think I'll go ahead and order a bottle for myself. 

And if it does work, am I going to live with mom saying, "I told you so?"

 

Alexa Is Being Mean!

We like to do Question of the Day on our Amazon Echo Dot. Today Alexa asked,

"What is the capital of Costa Rica?

A. San Jose
B. Nassau
C. Panama City
D. Caracas"

Art is pretty good with geography and answered, "San Jose."

Alexa answered, "I didn't get that. Let me repeat the question."  And she repeated the question.

This time Art answered, "A. San Jose."

Alexa said, "I didn't get that. Let me repeat the question." And she repeated the question again!

Art did it several more times and got the same irritating response.

Finally, Art told me I should answer it next so I said, "San Jose."

Alexa insisted on repeating the question AGAIN!

This time... to Art's chagrin, I purposely said, "Nassau." (Which he knows is wrong.)

And Alexa answered, "That's wrong. The answer is San Jose. 58% of the people got it correct."

What? What ?!? What?!?!?!?

This is our old Echo Dot. I think it's time to get a new one because Alexa keeps telling us, "I'm having trouble understanding you. Please try again later." 

Sigh...

POSTSCRIPT:

OK, I looked up Alexa’s misbehavior problem and learned that I should just reboot her. I had to figure out first that she was the 2nd generation. Then I had to press down the microphone off and volume down button for about 20 seconds until she gave me an orange ring. 

I’m pleased to say Alexa is much better behaved now and cooperating nicely. I’m very glad I don’t have to replace her now that she’s being nice again. 

Sharing Clothes With a Granddaughter

Eleven years ago, we joined our daughter and her family on Maui. My son-in-law, Ed was there on a techie type job. While Ed was at work, we visited some tourists sites together with Tiffany and 3 year old KC.

Tiffany thought it would be fun to have KC and me in matching t-shirts.

Well, needless to say little KC is not little anymore.

Recently I bought a blouse on Amazon that I liked a lot and Art convinced me to get two more since it had gone on sale. So now I had a purple, gray, and navy. 

The navy and purple seemed too close in color so I offered it to my granddaughter.

I can hardly believe we now wear the same size! KC on the other hand can wear the blouse tucked in and look wonderful.

Me? No way. I have to hide my tummy as much as I can. I blame it on gravity.

Everybody Can Win (If You're Vaccinated)

In order to get more of their citizens vaccinated, several states are instituting huge lotteries for those who get their vaccinations. Someone even won a million dollars. There are even incentives like free beer, donuts, burgers, tickets to games, etc. for those who haven't gotten vaccinated yet.

We got our vaccines in January and February to protect ourselves, our families and our community. It was our kuleana (Hawaiian for responsibility). 

But there are people who refuse the vaccine because they think they won't get sick anyway since they're not elderly, or that it's some kind of conspiracy, or against their religion because they got some misinformation that the vaccine is made of fetal tissue, or because Trump didn't seem to think it was important (even though he got the vaccine before leaving office), or just plain don't care.

When you listen to all the incentives that are being offered to unvaccinated people, I can't help but shake my head seeing these people who didn't care about themselves or didn't believe they needed to help their communities line up for million dollar lotteries or that free beer.

Hawaii has now come up with an incentive plan too, but the difference is that they are offering it to any Hawaii citizen who has been vaccinated. All they have to do is sign up on the website: https://hawaiicovid19.com/vaccine/

And what can you win?

There's a lot of fun stuff that were donated for the lottery here, but gee.. I really wouldn't want that one year lease on a car. We already have a car.

I just think it's rather cool that anybody who has already been vaccinated can win.

I understand that in the first hour after the lottery was posted, the system crashed because so many people entered.

Will this get people to do the right thing?

I don't know.

And yes, I entered mom's name too. 😁

I hope she doesn't win the car either. The Zippy's for a Year would be cool though. She could have wun tun min every week.

Tell Me Your Secret

Mom has been getting even more forgetful in the last few months, enough that it's alarming us. I did mention it to her doctor but he felt that so long as it was not abrupt it was OK.

Whatever the case, we decided to enroll mom in an Adult Day Care for just one day a week to meet some other people her age who could speak to her in Japanese. In order to do this, there was a pile of redundant paperwork to fill out, not to mention proof of a physical from her doctor and a TB test.

We took her for the TB test last week at Kaiser. It was interesting to note that they were no longer holding temperature checks outside of the clinic for anyone entering the building.

Because of her fall and rather badly skinning her knee a week ago during a semi drive-by birthday party, we had her using a cane for this shot clinic appointment.

When they called her name, she shot up like a rocket almost carrying her cane instead using it for support and briskly walked into the room. I was going to go in with her, but she was too fast for me so I just waited outside. I heard a bunch of nurses laughing as the door was closing saying, "Wow! She walks faster than me!" "I wish I had that kind of energy." 

When the nurse brought mom out to me she commented that the other nurses couldn't believe how healthy mom was and wanted to know her secret. 

Mom had apparently told them that it was due to the yardwork she does every morning for about 2 hours.

The nurse wanted to ask me if there was more secret knowledge for 91 year old mom's health.

I told her mom was also on the treadmill before that.

The nurse's mouth dropped open and she burst out laughing, "Well, she's got us all beat!"

There is no secret. I could tell you that she has always eaten healthy meals with little meat. Her sweets were kept at a minimum. She rarely has fast food. And she makes it a point to exercise and has never smoked. 

She's done all that. 

So is it genetics?

She lost her younger sister, Grace 5 years ago from a stroke. Auntie Grace also did all the right things and was even more active and engaged in life with a loving family. And yet, we suddenly tragically lost her.

Auntie Dorothy is the youngest of the sisters living in Hawaii and is now bedridden and suffering from dementia (perhaps from a stroke?). She, like mom and Auntie Grace did all the right things and has a loving family who have been taking incredible care of her and my 101 year old uncle.

So you just don't know. Obviously, a healthy diet, exercise, mind stimulation and socialization all definitely help.

But in the end.... it's just plain ol' luck, I think.

I Remember Joe

My granddaughter, KC just graduated from Middle School. Good grief! She'll be a high schooler in September!!! Where did the years ago? I texted a photo of her mother a few days. 

I remember Tiffany telling me that a lot of her friends were having special dresses bought for the Middle School graduation ceremony. I don't know how happy she was about it, but I told her I'd sew her dress. I had her choose the style, material and lacing. In the end, I think she was happy with it. I think. One of her teachers stopped me in the hallway after the ceremony to tell me how pretty Tif's dress was. (She also said, "how appropriate" since several girls wore what looked like prom dresses.)

I told Tif that I'd given the dress to our school custodian, Joe for his daughter before he and his wife passed away.

And this got me to remembering Joe.

Joe was a very cool, very handsome, very friendly African American gentleman who befriended me at our school and tried to give me pointers on his community. He did not like the word janitor and told me with a smile to refer to him as a building engineer. 

On many an after school, he'd come to my classroom and chat.

I remember him telling me he used to work in a restaurant and that he never orders salads because they don't clean the vegetables good enough.

He told me not to go into certain neighborhoods because it was not safe.

Joe and his wife were raising two daughters when she was stricken with cancer. He struggled with caring for her while also trying to make sure his daughters were coping well in school.

When she died, he told me about preparing for the funeral. It was the first African American funeral I'd ever been to. Buddhist funerals tend to be serious, formal, controlled ceremonies.

Joe's wife's funeral was exuberant, lively, colorful and musical. I was totally amazed by it all and weird to say... loved it.

Joe told me later that he was glad I liked it and that he figured it would be something different for me.

Life was hard for him but he remained as upbeat as could be. This was probably when I offered Tiffany's middle school graduation dress for his daughters.

Very soon afterwards, Joe was stricken with very severe diabetes with other complications. He ended up in the hospital and we visited him.

As we were getting ready to leave, he asked me to kiss him goodbye. You have to understand as he knew that I don't offer kisses to people other than Art and my kids. But he looked at me and smiled. I leaned over and kissed his cheek and he waved goodbye.

That was my last view of him. I didn't know it would be. He died soon afterwards.

And yet, it wasn't my last view of him because he still visits my thoughts now and then. Wonderful people do that.

Trying to Understand an Antibody Test

My late father had been part of some kind of long term heart/brain study with one of the hospitals here on Oahu. No, participants are not paid in any way. They do it to promote health science.

When we moved to Hawaii, I was asked along with my brother to volunteer as part of the next generation.

In 2018, they tested our cognitive/memory function. No, they didn't tell me how I did. They are apparently going to test us again in 2023. I already know that's going to be a problem for me. Counting backwards by 3 or 7 or whatever is not fun. Remembering what was placed on the table and taken away is REALLY not fun. I'm not Sherlock Holmes.

Anyway, I digress.

The hospital study recently contacted us to get what she said would be a "teeny tiny blood draw" to determine if we had COVID-19 antibodies. 

I told the researcher that I'd been vaccinated so the blood test would indicate that I have antibodies. She said antibodies you get from the vaccine and what you get from contracting the disease are different.

OK. We got our results.

I knew I hadn't caught COVID-19.

But I'm not totally understanding all this.

I take it 0.08 is OK.

Ah well.

I hope it helps their study anyway.

The Toaster Oven is Really an Oven?

I know. I know. Sometimes (a lot of times), it takes a while for my brain to actually figure things out. 

When we remodeled the kitchen some 15 years ago... (Gosh! Has it been that long?) we bought a microwave oven that was uuummm... rather large. And to compound the crowding of our counter, we bought a toaster oven that was also... rather large. 

I remember my brother's raised eyebrows when he saw it. That microwave barely squeaked in under the cabinet.

OK... yes, the toaster oven is rather large, and we use it quite often as a toaster or to warm left overs. However, we've never used it to actually bake anything. 

Well, our daughter sends us Trader Joe mixes every so often. This time it was a gingerbread mix that could be used for bread or cookies depending on what you added to it.

It called for an 8" x 8" baking dish. That's sort of small. I hated to heat up the oven for such a small baking dish.

And it's HOT right now in Hawaii. Why didn't I do this 3 months ago?

That's when I wondered if I could stick it in the toaster oven.

It's an oven, right?

I put the glass baking pan in to make sure it would fit.

It did.

And guess what? 💡 It IS an oven! 

Duh...

It baked perfectly!

Since I can't taste things very well, I had mom taste it.

I didn't tell her what kind of bread it was.

She said, "Chocolate?, Coffee?"

Hmmmmm...

My brother stopped by and I asked him to taste it.

He answered, "Pumpkin?"

They couldn't detect much ginger in it.

They did say it was tasty though.

My neighbor thought it was melon. 😆

Well, Tiffany sent me another mix.

I'll bet they won't have any trouble figuring this one out.

(And yes, I'm going to bake it in the toaster oven. 😁)

Reading an Erudite Mystery Novel

I recently recommended The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason to our friends. I'd read that book ages and ages ago and knew it was a mystery, knew I really liked it and passed it on to my brother who liked it too. But I couldn't remember the story.

So despite the fact that I don't read regular books anymore, I decided to read it again. (I did just get new reading glasses.)

There are TONS and TONS of glowing reviews for this book and the words often used to describe it are intellectual, cerebral, brilliant, suspenseful but more often, it's erudite. 

Here is a little synopsis from Publishers Weekly:

"...Caldwell and Thomason's intriguing intellectual suspense novel stars four brainy roommates at Princeton, two of whom have links to a mysterious 15th-century manuscript, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili . This rare text (a real book) contains embedded codes revealing the location of a buried Roman treasure. Comparisons to The Da Vinci Code are inevitable, but Caldwell and Thomason's book is the more cerebral—and better written—of the two: think Dan Brown by way of Donna Tartt and Umberto Eco..."

 Hmmm... cerebral. Yes, it's definitely that. It's not a book you can skim. The sentences are so eruditely structured that you have to read some twice to get the full appreciation.

And here's part of another book review from Book Browse:

"...Ten years ago, Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason's The Rule of Four became a literary phenomenon that earned comparisons to Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose and Donna Tartt's The Secret History. Hailed as "ingenious...profoundly erudite" (The New York Times), "compulsively readable" (People), and "an exceptional piece of scholarship" (San Francisco Chronicle), it spent forty-nine weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, sold nearly two million copies in North America, and was translated into thirty-five languages around the world..."

The thing is, once I started rereading The Rule of Four, I quickly got hooked. 

And you can't read this book really fast. And you can't skip portions because you don't know where there will be a clue.

The authors are Princeton and Harvard graduates. They're obviously brilliant and obviously very erudite which you will immediately surmise once you start reading.

Warner Bros. bought the film rights to it a while ago, but haven't worked on it yet. They must be looking for some erudite screenwriters. 

My aging non-erudite brain is also having trouble remembering so I was flipping back here and there to reread some portions. This was actually easier for me to do on a real book.

I have now borrowed Ian Caldwell's The Fifth Gospel on my Kindle. I may not be erudite, but I can read slowly.

POSTSCRIPT:

I started The Fifth Gospel and think it's easier to read. Maybe. Then I read that Book Browse review again.

"...At once a riveting literary thriller, a feast of biblical history and scholarship, and a moving family drama, The Fifth Gospel is a novel about the depths of sacrifice and the power of forgiveness. Rich, authentic, erudite, 🙄 and emotionally searing, it satisfies on every level..."

Ainokea

When I saw Ainokea on a car sticker the first time, I thought it was a Hawaiian word until I realized.... Ooooh... Ai no kea! That's pidgin for "I don't care." 

I actually found it on the Urban Dictionary:

"A slurred version of the words "I don't care." deemed by Hawaii locals.

1: Oh he gonna kill you for not going to his party
2: AINOKEA! I do what I like!"

I don't know when it got to be so commonplace. They even have a t-shirt with that word.

In Hawaiian pidgin, "I don't want to go," could be "I no like go."

"Do you want to go somewhere," would be "You like go some place?"

I suppose it's the casual nature of local Hawaiian culture (according to Art).

Which reminds me of this t-shirt.

Hawaiians like to hang loose.

I guess this goes back to that casual, friendly nature of local living.

That shaka sign goes along with the hang looseness. It's a friendly gesture to mean everything's good. If it's flashed from a car it probably means "thank you," or "hello."

Art just told me one of his favorites was, "You go stay?" 

Can you guess what it means?

It means, "Are you going to stay?"

Hawaiian pidgin, like all language evolves constantly. It has also evolved differently on each island so pidgin is slightly different if you fly to another island. Case in point: Art and I used to argue that snow cones (mainland lingo) is shave ice on Oahu, but it's ice shave on the Big Island where he grew up.

But that's OK, I've corrected Art. He knows better now. 😁

My Sandwich Lettuce Wrap

Just for fun, I wanted to show you what I sometimes eat for lunch.

Lately, the leaf lettuce we've been getting has rather large leaves. I like lettuce. I usually have one slice of bread with some kind of meat, tuna or egg salad filling. Well, I found that the lettuce inside my sandwich was cumbersome and often caused the filling to fall out.

Soooo... one day.... I wondered.

Yup.

I made a sandwich lettuce wrap and it works perfectly!

Just for Fun

I was sitting here wondering what to write about when I looked at my photo file and found these cartoons that I meant to post a LONG time ago. I don't know where I got them from, but I figure now is as good a time as any so here goes.

Have a nice day, everybody. And don't forget to get some exercise.