Scanning, Scanning, Scannnnnnning!

I have pretty much spent the day scanning. I've finished one photo album between 1948 to 1963 and I'm exhausted. I'm sorry to admit that I'm glad we were too poor to have our own camera in those old days. I'm not doing my mother's pre 1948 photos yet because I know my brother will want to adjust the scanner to handle those photos with more care.

I did scan this photo of me with my parents and grandmother (paternal). It was a rare photo taken in a studio. I was the first born so they probably wanted to document it. I think it's rather interesting to see the fashion of the time. My mother sewed all my clothes in those days, right down to the underwear.


Here's my kindergarten class. Can you guess which kid I am? Clue: Even back then, I had to be a teeny bit different. Perhaps I didn't understand the photographer when he told the kids to stand tall and look straight ahead. I think this was the first and last time I was in the middle row. After this, I was always smack dab in the front. Sigh... I guess my growth spurt came much later.

Answer: I'm in the middle row, third from the right.

My New Toy

I have a new project! I've decided to scan a bunch of our old photos, particularly my mom's. She happens to have quite a few photos from the past (1930-50's) that I think should be preserved.

Unfortunately our Canon scanner is very old. It has certainly done a great job up to now but my techie brother, Dennis felt I should upgrade if I was going to put so much effort into preserving the photos and the information that I would attach to each image.

You all know how long it takes us to make up our minds. Therefore when Dennis was here on Sunday I told him to choose the scanner we should get. He decided pretty darn quickly. Although this scanner was $169.99 at Newegg.com, the shipping was $52.52! Sheesh! I would love to complain but I'm getting used to the Hawaii shipping costs. I was surprised that the scanner arrived yesterday! (No, I couldn't find a scanner in Hawaii that wasn't attached to a printer/FAX machine.)


I stared at it last night but I was afraid to open it. Art was busy with a new house project and Dennis is planning to come this weekend to help set it up so nobody could help me. Then I told myself, "I have a college degree. I can read. I know how to follow directions." That last one is very dubious, but I held my breath and opened the box. I read the directions, got stuck a couple of times, called my brother at the police station for help, got tips from Art and then started attaching the wires and uploading the set-up DVD...by myself.

And you know what? I did it! It works! It works great!


I've got all these little 2" X 3" photos that would have been a real trial to scan individually but I discovered that with this new machine I can put 6 small photos on the bed and it knows to save each photo individually. It can also auto correct yellowed photos. I'm going to scan all the photos and then ask my mom and aunts for their memories which I'll input onto the Summary (under Properties) for each photo. Then I can save them to a DVD and I'll bet my cousins and all our kids would love it.


Here's my new machine all set up and doing a great job so far. I'm doing the not so important photos right now. Dennis will want to make adjustments on the scanner and decide what the best method of archiving and organizing I should do. (This scanner even scans slides and film... but I won't deal with that right now!)

However, the important thing is... I DID IT! Almost pretty much truly definitely sorta by myself!

Pee Pee, Poopie, Potty and Pongu

My daughter, Tiffany called today to share a funny story while KC sat on the toilet. Tif said she asked KC which potty seat she wanted to use, the Diego (Dora the Explorer) or Elmo seat? Instead of saying the Elmo potty she answered, “sesamestreet.org.” She’s definitely her techie father’s daughter.

Then I heard KC yell exultantly and Tif said, “That’s a pongu, KC. It doesn’t count. It has to be a poopie or shi shi (Japanese for pee).”

“But Daddy (who is Korean American) likes pongu,” KC said. I have a feeling my son-in-law always laughs boisterously when his daughter has her little bursts of flatulence.

“I know,” said Tif, “but you have to poopie for a jelly bean.”

Then I told KC on the cellphone that I knew she could use the potty like a big girl.

“But Grandma, I'm a little big girl… I poopie in my diaper,” she replied logically.

I guess she still can’t understand why she shouldn’t continue to do it there since it’s a whole lot more convenient and she’s always done it that way.

“My okole is trying hard, Grandma,” she grunted plaintively, “My okole is trying.” (Okole is Hawaiian for your behind.)

The attempt was unsuccessful and we left Tiffany to continue her multilingual toilet training with KC.

Art made a short call later to KC and said, “KC, this is Grandpa. Use the potty.”

“Did you seriously think that would work?” I said, rolling my eyes.

An hour later we got another call and it was KC, “I used the potty, Grandma! I used the potty Grandpa!” she screamed triumphantly.” We clapped and cheered for her while she methodically made her decision on which little jelly bean she would eat.

I’m thinking our minds will be in (I mean on) the toilet for the next few days.

Thankful for Thank You Notes

I saw the following Advice Column letter from Annie's Mailbox in the Honolulu Advertiser yesterday morning.

Dear Annie: We have six grandchildren and talk, e-mail and text often with four of them. They always thank us for the gifts we send for birthdays and holidays.

The same, however, is not true for the other two, who live out of state. They are both teenagers and quite capable of acknowledging gifts, but they don't. When we ask the parents if the children received their gifts, the answer usually is, "I think so, but I'm not sure."

Our children were raised to be properly grateful, but for some reason, our son doesn't feel his children need to follow rules of any sort.

We sent money to the kids for Christmas and never heard a word. I sent an e-mail to their mother asking if they got their cards, but she didn't reply. Our son believes it's up to the kids to say thank you and if they don't, we should accept it. He says we are expecting too much.

My first instinct is not to give them anything for birthdays and holidays this year. I wonder if they'd even notice. We are both retired and live on a fixed income. Should I stop sending gifts? Should I donate their share of birthday and holiday presents to the needy who would appreciate them? — Very Disappointed Grandmother

Dear Grandmother: Your son and his wife apparently don't believe their children should be responsible for even the most basic courtesy. Use this as an opportunity to educate these misguided grandchildren. Send each an e-mail and explain why you expect some type of acknowledgment for any gift, and that if they don't thank you, you will assume they no longer want your presents. If you wish instead to make a donation to charity in their names, by all means, do so.

I've seen these kinds of letters in advice columns many, many times. Are we becoming a society who more and more don't take the time to acknowledge kindnesses?

My daughter, Tiffany not only writes (and sometimes designs her own) thank you notes, but has my granddaughter add her signature scrawl or even message scrawl to teach KC the importance of showing her appreciation and gratitude.

We in turn have used Skype to show KC that we received her card and loved it. We let her know how much we love getting that acknowledgement from her.

Now then... about Annie's Mailbox letter. Art and I were talking about it this morning and would add a little more to that response.

We would also tell the children that since we'd not received any acknowledgements, we would be assuming that the gifts do not mean much to them. Therefore, it will make them happy to know that we would be sending their future gifts as a donation to a charity in their name where it would help somebody in need and be much appreciated.

OK... I'm getting off my soapbox now.... again.

Postscript: After reading everybody's great comments I would like to amend what I said in this post. I think this person should definitely continue to send loving cards and letters to her two grandchildren because you want to maintain a good relationship with those kids.

Microfiction #2

Welcome to Microfiction Monday. Susan at Stony River is our wonderful host. The rules are simple. You are to use the picture that Susan posts and compose a story up to 140 characters including spaces and punctuation. Then go to Susan's blog and leave your name. She has a character counter to help us count.

"I emptied my wallet at Mario Ticoci today."
"I got my hair done at the Hair Dressers School for free. I guess you get what you pay for."

Cousins Pot Luck

We had a terrific Cousins Pot Luck last night! These are the relatives on my mother's side. She has 2 sisters in Hawaii. This is the fourth we've hosted since we made the decision to move back to Hawaii. Prior to the pot lucks I hadn't seen my cousins except at my father's funeral several years ago. I love my friends here and they know it but I felt it was important to make connections with our relatives again, too.


Although we didn't see each other for almost four decades after we moved to the mainland, it's great to build these family ties again.

Each cousin, aunt and uncle brought over an incredible amount of AMAZINGLY scrumptious local food. There were fried noodles, lots of kahlbi, kalua pork, sushi, shrimp tempura, king crab legs, grilled shrimp, Italian noodles, spring rolls, all kinds of vegetable tempura, rice, potato salad, seafood liguine, crab casserole, broccoli salad, haupia fruit float and I forget what else. Dessert was a peach Bavarian cake, dream cake and flan.

With each family bringing three incredible dishes or a TON of their one entree, we had enough food for everybody to bring home for today's lunch or dinner. This is what the Hawaiian pot luck has evolved to. Everybody brings enough to the party to insure there's enough to take home. It's really fun to see the buffet tables groaning with the variety of food the family was inspired to share.

Now that this party is over we'll have Art's family in two weeks. I'll need to do some exercising before then.

My brother, Dennis spent a bit of time fixing Art's laptop that had gotten hit by a malware or virus. See what I mean about it being great having family? The cousins and I also made a pact to share old family photos of the three sisters. Now, if only my kids would come and move to Hawaii. That would be perfection!

Jordan: A Final Memory

These memories are just a small part of the 18 days we spent in Egypt and Jordan. However, I wanted to share a few thoughts I had of the trip.

One thing I learned traveling with a tour is that you really become very good friends with strangers for that brief time you are together. Although we thought we'd keep those connections forever, we ended up not doing so except for a very few special people.

Egypt and Jordan were quite different from each other. For one thing, Jordanians actually think the traffic lights mean something. In Egypt, the red light on a traffic signal is NOT even a suggestion. You cross the city streets at your own peril. We ended up waiting until we found an Egyptian about to cross and followed them. Egyptians do not run over their own countrymen. Just kidding... I'm sure they'd run over anybody.

In Jordan, Matt took us to see Petra of the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade fame. We had to walk about a half a mile through a siq in order to reach this hidden site.

And then we were there! We could see the pinkish carvings coming into view. Petra is the Greek word for rock, but the Arabic term, al-madina al-wardah (rose colored city) is probably a better name for this place. It was built in the first century BC by an Arab tribe, the Nabateans.

Here's Al-Khazna (Pharoah's Treasury) which is where Indiana Jones has to go into to get the Holy Grail. Ummmm... nope! The inside was just a room, no tunnels or trap doors. Ah well...


Iron oxide creates the pinkish color rock. The black is magnesium and the yellow is lemonite.


We saw these mountain goats everywhere watching our every move.


We learned that this colonnaded Roman street at Petra's city center was built about 106 A.D.


I was able to get up close and personal with a camel. To this experience I say, "Once was enough." I now know why they call camels Ships of the Desert. I did get seasick!

Egyptian Memories #3

This was our last day in Egypt on the way to Jordan.

I had a choice.

I could get up at 2:30 in the freezing morning and spend 2 hours climbing up Mt. Sinai or I could just let Art climb it and take lots of photos for me to see when I was warm and comfortable. Hmmm... what to do... what to do.

Matt warned me that I should think twice about doing the climb since I have weak ankles and had twice sprained it badly on a couple of other trips. Awwww....

Art got beautiful shots of the sunrise atop Mt. Sinai.


However, he missed seeing the sign that said Camel Path which was supposed to be the quicker way down and took the 3700 Steps of Repentance instead.


He was a bit embarrassed about keeping everybody waiting at the bus as they wondered what happened to him. However, he did get a whole bunch of great photos. This is St. Catherine's as he scrambled down the mountain.


After breakfast, we went back to see St. Catherine's Monastery. It is the oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery in the world.

I was really impressed to see the actual (transplanted) Burning Bush. I thought it looked like a rose bush. When I checked on Internet, I discovered that it does belong to the rose family, Rubus Sanctus.

And then it was on to Jordan.

Egyptian Memories #2

What do I remember about Egypt? There were the pyramids, temples, the hieroglyphics, historical places, tour friends who you never forget, food, the horrendous TRAFFIC, the Nile, the Sahara Desert and without doubt, our Tour Leader, Matt.

Our tour group consisted of 4 young and adventurous girls from Chicago, us, 2 Australians, 5 Canadians and 4 Brits.

When we first saw Matt, we were disappointed. We were expecting an Egyptian expert but could hear right away that he was British. Then he slanted his body, put his hand on his hip and in a high pitched voice said, "If anybody tells you I'm gay. I'm not. I have a girlfriend." I liked him right away and in the course of the tour found that he was the best (of 3 tours that we've taken) tour leader we've ever had. He was a different sort of leader with each person on the tour fulfilling everybody's need. His priorities were everybody's health and safety, respect for the Egyptian environment and its people, and FUN! (Besides, who can resist that British accent?)


When the occasion demanded or allowed, he was serious, informative, hilarious, outrageous, wise, strict, crazy, tireless, kind, sweet or funny. At certain sites, an Egyptian expert was hired to teach us about the location and its history.

When we got to Edfu, Matt insisted that we get up at the crack of dawn to be FIRST in line to see the Temple of Horus. "Trust me," he said. "You'll want to be there before the crowds." He gave us all a highlighted diagram and told us what to look at first. "Once you've seen those things, you can see the rest at your leisure," he assured us.

The Temple of Horus is the most completely preserved Egyptian temple. It was started by Ptolemy III in 237 BC on the site of an earlier and smaller New Kingdom structure. The sandstone temple was completed almost 200 years later in 57 BC by Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysus, Cleopatra VII's father.


The impressive entrance to the temple is through a massive 117 foot high pylon gateway guarded by two huge granite falcons and decorated with colossal reliefs of Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysus, Horus and Hathor.

This is the interior of the temple grounds.

We could not stop taking photos of the intricate and beautiful hieroglyphics.





What a surprise to see that sparrows had made homes in holes between the stone walls.

Many of the beautiful reliefs were defaced. Matt explained that the reachable reliefs were chiseled out by ancient Christians who camped in the temples while hiding from Romans who were persecuting them.

Lunch was on the boat as we cruised up the Nile toward Kom Ombo and the Temple of Sobek (crocodile god) and Haroeris. This temple is dated from Ptolemaic times (300 - 30BC).

Cleopatra's Bath! I wonder if she filled it with milk. I don't know which Cleopatra this would be.

You can see reliefs of Sobek and Horus here.

Our daughter, Tiffany mentioned how fancy cruise ships have their towels folded into different shapes. We were surprised to see our blankets and towels folded into the shape of a crocodile.


Remember what I said about Matt being outrageous and fun? The evening was designated Egyptian Night and we were all to dress in (tourist type) Egyptian clothing. Matt's dress was not exactly Egyptian but we ALL loved it!

What a day that was!

Help for Haiti

Photo by Daniel Morel in CBS article:


I received an e-mail today from the White House calling for support from Americans to help the people of Haiti at this horrible time of disaster.

I just can't post about anything else today with this on my mind. This is an earthquake that happens once in 200 years. It really unnerves you to know that a disaster of epic proportions could happen to any nation, anybody at any time.

We are sitting in our homes comfortable while people are crying in agony in Haiti. My heart goes out to them. I feel such sadness.

And yes! Definitely! We'll be sending our contribution to the effort. It's just hard to decide where to send it. President Obama suggests the Red Cross as a good place to start. We've been partial to Doctors Without Borders. I guess it doesn't matter. It's just important to try to help our neighbors in their time of need.

Trip to Egypt #1

I couldn't think of anything to post today so I thought I'd share some experiences from our trip to Egypt.

It was November, 2007 and Art found a good deal (no luxuries) tour to Egypt. This was the 2nd tour we'd taken. Our first was to Turkey which we enjoyed so much that we thought we'd try a tour again. Besides, we weren't confident about going to Egypt on our own so a tour seemed the best, safest bet.

On this day we got up at 4:30, rode a water taxi across the Nile (Can you believe it? We were on the Nile River! The Nile!) and walked a bit to rent our donkeys.

I've never ridden an animal before so this was a bit daunting!

He seemed nice enough...


...but then I discovered he had a mind of his own. I named him Lefty because he kept wanting to swerve left onto the road. (I think he knew I didn't like to drive.)


We were supposed to keep our mounts on the shoulder of the road on the right because big tour buses would come rumbling by, but Lefty didn't seem to know I was the boss.

It was an hour ride to the Valley of the Kings and I wished I had a gel seat. I'm at least grateful that Lefty didn't run away with me like his friend did with another Chicagoan who was part of our group. Our guides had to go charging after her. Yikes!

Since we'd all seen the Pyramids of Giza I was expecting the Valley of the Kings to be sort of... well... fancy. That was silly, of course. The tombs were meant to be hidden and secret, safe from grave robbers (not that they were).

They told us that 63 royal tombs had so far been found and 11 were still unaccounted for.


One of the amazing things we were able to experience was King Tut's tomb and his actual mummy. We weren't allowed to take photos inside the tomb.


We also went to de Deir el-Medina where the workers, artisans, artists and craftsmen lived to work on the tombs. They told us that it wasn't slaves that built the tombs but workers who were paid and treated with respect.

As much fun as it was to ride Lefty, it was even nicer to ride an air conditioned bus back to our boat!

Microfiction Monday: My First Time

Welcome to Microfiction Monday. Susan at Stony River is our wonderful host. The rules are simple. You are to use the picture that Susan posts and compose a story up to 140 characters including spaces and punctuation. Then go to Susan's blog and leave your name. She has a character counter to help us count. I've loved reading them but never thought I'd do one myself. So here goes!



"It's the portal to the next world. No wars, no hate!
We'll all be identical in mind and body.
Will you come?"

Replacing our Termite Infested File Cabinet

We've been looking everywhere for a light gray METAL 2 drawer file cabinet for Art's office ever since we had to take our good deal termite inhabited Craig's List wooden file cabinet to the dump. Everybody is out of them. (gray file cabinets NOT termites. Termites we've all got lots of them.) We've checked Office Depot, Office Max and a couple of other office furniture type places. Not only do they not have them but they're expensive! Yes... yes... I understand the shipping cost and all, but sheesh! $250 for a 2 drawer legal file cabinet? Puuuhlease!

Both Office Max and Depot advertised sales in the Sunday paper on the file cabinets but when I called they said they didn't have the light gray in stock. My brother tells me light gray is now the out color and that putty is in. Sigh. But we want the gray. I don't know why, but we just prefer the gray. They didn't have it last week either.

Office Max told me that the Hon cabinet would be $163 (the SALE price!). I told her it was listed as $109 on the Office Max website. She said it was because of shipping. Made sense... I guess.

HOWEVER... I decided to try out the site anyway. I put the cabinet in my cart and started to check out just to see what the shipping cost would be. Surprise! It said FREE SHIPPING. Riiiight! I've been fooled by that before. After you hopefully put in your address, a warning will come out that it's free shipping only in the contiguous U.S.. NOT applicable for Alaska or Hawaii.

Instead, when I put our address in, it said that shipping would take 6-8 weeks for Alaska and Hawaii. I was still holding my breath looking at the shipping order and waiting for the added cost. Then it appeared! $5.18 for TAX. Hmmmm? And shipping still says FREE.

I click the ORDER button and off it goes. Can it be? We're actually buying the Hon, light gray, legal, 2 drawer file cabinet for $115.17? Free shipping? This is a first!

I wonder if I should have gotten the putty... or maybe the black instead... I wonder how light that gray is... I wonder if it'll be dented when we get it... Will it be the right size?... ARRGHHHHH! I hate buying things on-line.

Buddhism and Tiger Woods

I just read an excellent article by Tamara Lush (Associated Press) in the Star Bulletin this morning concerning Fox sports analyst, Brit Hume saying that Tiger Woods should look to Christianity rather than Buddhism to gain redemption and forgiveness. He is referring to the fact that Woods said he applies a lot of what he learned from his mom's Thai Buddhism to focus his game...meaning golf.

I'm tired of this. I'm really tired of anybody trying to impose their belief systems on others by saying their system IS better than ALL the others. Wars often start for just this reason.

I'm thrilled that you have a religion or belief system that works for you, but please don't look down on what other people might believe, especially when you don't really understand their beliefs.

Here is an excerpt from Lush's article in the Star Bulletin. I tried to find the link but it's not there yet so I'm copying it off the paper.

..."Adultery is as much of a sin in Buddhism as it is in Christianity," Thurman (Robert Thurman, professor of Tibetan studies at Columbia University) said. "The ethics are the same in both traditions. Adultery is a sin and cause the kinds of problems that Tiger Woods is in."

Where many Westerners stumble is that Buddhists' definition of sin-- and what happens after it--differs from the Judeo-Christian tradition, as the consequences of Buddhists' actions are a result of a person's thoughts and deeds rather than divine punishment. Believers have to look to themselves and turn to an ethical way of life for redemption, although there are savior figures to help a Buddhist in need. There is no one, omnipotent "creator god" to bestow redemption as in Christianity.

You have the law of karma, so no matter what Woods says or does, he is going to have to pay for whatever wrongs he's done," said Stephen Prothero, a Boston University professor on Buddhism and the author of "Religious Literacy: What Americans Need to Know." "There's no accountant in the sky wiping sins off your balance sheet, like there is in Christianity." ...

I guess that's what surprised me when I went to college and met a dorm mate who told me she slept with her friend's boyfriend but she wasn't worried because she was going to church that evening to confess her sins and be fine again. Then there was that other dorm mate who was crying hysterically for a whole bunch of us because she said we were all going to hell for not belonging to her church even though she knew how nice we all were.

Sigh...

Avatar!

We took Mom, my aunt, uncle and their daughter-in-law to see Avatar at the IMAX in 3D. I have to tell you it was just awesome. It was worth the extra money we paid to see it in 3D at the IMAX. Wow! I don't think I've ever really seen a 3D movie and this blew me away. Wow! The CG or whatever they call it... WOW!

I even got motion sickness for a while from all the jumping, soaring, running around the planet, Pandora.


We recognized actress, Michelle Rodriguez from the TV series, Lost that is filmed in Hawaii. I'm glad to see she's in such a great movie after leaving Lost. Sigourney Weaver did a great job, too.

Then came a big surprise. As Art was entering the Men's restroom after the movie, who should pass him by but actor, Jorge Garcia from Lost. His character on Lost is Hurley. I would have given him my camera but he didn't want to accost the actor in the restroom. Art says "Hurley" really does look just like Hurley on TV.

The two and a half hour movie went by in a flash. We all had a great time!
Wow!

Postscript:
I just found a little video trailer about Avatar. No 3D glasses but it gives you an idea what the film is about.