Pugslee

I remember that time 11 years ago when Art and I were visiting in Hawaii with our kids.

My brother, Dennis was frustrated and unhappy that his wife and three sons wanted a dog.

"They don't understand how hard it would be to take care of a dog in a small apartment," he moaned. "They'd better not expect me to be the one to take care of him."

Despite his protests he was outnumbered and the family somehow made room for Pugslee.

As it turned out, he was right. He did end up being the one to take care of Pugslee most of the time.

Dennis and I did not have a dog when we were growing up. Our dog, Jimmy died before we entered kindergarten.

I don't think Dennis knew much about owning a dog, but he learned fast. He ended up being the one who took Pugslee out for most of his walks and bathroom breaks. Pugslee was there for all their joys and heartbreaks. My sister-in-law, Nancy remembered that when she lost her parents, Pugslee seemed to understand and comfort her by placing his head on her knees, looking mournfully into her eyes and letting her know he was there for her.

"He's actually the best dog," Dennis would tell me seriously. "He's really smart."

Several months ago, something seemed to be wrong. Pugslee was fat when he was younger and the joke was he looked more like a little piglet. Now he was thin, his bowels were watery and he kept losing weight. The vet prescribed medicine, but eventually they found he had stomach cancer.


The vet said they would know when it would be time to say goodbye. Dennis spent a lot of time perfecting the technique to catch the watery stools that came spraying out.

"It's not time yet," he kept telling me. "His tail still wags when he sees me. He's happy. Pugslee is not suffering. I know he still enjoys being with us."

They fed him his favorite foods. They gave him loads of extra attention all the while cleaning up after him and airing out the apartment.

This past Sunday, Dennis and Nancy walked in with large bags of premium dog food and a clean doggie dish.

And it hit me.

"We had to let him go yesterday," Nancy said with eyes glistening. "He stopped eating for a couple of days. We had to take him in. We were all there with him. Bear and Cody came too."

My brother, usually the stoic said, "It hurts too much."

"Do you have somebody you can give the dog dish to?" Nancy asked.

"No," I answered. "I think I'll keep it. We might get a dog someday."

"No," said Art. "Absolutely not! We have no room for a dog. We travel too much. I refuse to be the one to end up taking care of it. Don't even think about it."

1,000th Post Milestone!

I've written 1,000 posts! It doesn't seem possible. When I started Musings in 2008 I didn't think I'd still be writing in 2011.

It's been so much fun to have friends from around the globe! Thank you very, very much for visiting and encouraging me along. Do please keep those comments coming. It's the carrot that keeps me motivated.

My line dancing teacher sent this Korean video to me and I just couldn't resist posting it. I thought it was a nice way to celebrate this happy day.



I can hardly believe what I'm seeing! How do they get their tiny fingers over all the frets? Wow! How do they keep smiling? I have a hard time remembering line dancing steps, much less trying to smile at the same time. Good grief!

New Glasses for Mom

The sun is awfully bright in Hawaii so we did get mom some of those clip on shades for her glasses. It was OK for a while, but then she complained that it was too heavy and bothersome. She's been noticing the transition glasses that Art and I both have now and started to really like the idea of her glasses being able to darken every time she's out in bright light.

We did do quite a bit of price checking this time. The estimate we got from her optometrist was $478.00 for UV protection, scratch proof, transition, bifocals.

Forget Costco because I'm no longer convinced they are the absolute best place to buy glasses AND you have to be the actual card holder!

Next stop was Kaiser Permanente's optician. Their price for about the same thing was $309.00 + tax because they were having a $100. off of the frames promotion for April.


Art and I then checked Sam's Club's Optical Center in Pearl City. They had a frame that might work for mom so we brought her in. While we were deciding which one to try on, Alex came over. He blew me away! He started talking Japanese to mom and I'm embarrassed to say he could speak the language much, much better than me. Yikes! It's not often I hear young people in Hawaii able to speak fluent Japanese. He had mom at ease and laughing for the entire session. She smiled at me later and said his Japanese is perfect. Yeah...yeah... I know.

Shock of shocks! We learned that Alex's wife is from Sendai also. (We don't know any other people from Sendai in Hawaii other than relatives.) Wow! I asked him how he got so good at speaking Japanese. He said it was from watching Japanese dramas. Ummm... no... I don't think that's it. I watch those dramas occasionally, too and my Japanese is not nearly as perfect as his. OK, OK, my Japanese is pretty crappy. Ah well...

Aside from his ability to speak Japanese, he was also very knowledgeable about glasses. Mom's glasses with a little better lens material cost $302 + tax.

Next time I need glasses, I'm going to see Alex!

POSTSCRIPT: Alas! Mom's been wearing those Sam's Club glasses and is having some difficulty getting used to them. The bifocal line is a bit higher than her other glasses and is causing her difficulty when she gardens. I'm trying to find out if there's any sort of warranty or correction or whatever. I e-mailed Alex, but haven't heard back yet. We'll see.

Hawaii IS the 50th State!

Along the same lines as yesterday's post I thought I'd post this link about President Obama's birth certificate. I saw a post about this very thing on Hattie's Web. Trump has been harping on and on about this in the media. Doesn't he have anything else to say that might prove the worthiness of his aspiration to be the U.S. president?

Why, oh why is this whole birth certificate thing such a big deal? President Obama's staff even provided a copy of his birth certificate in 2008. Maybe the problem is that he was born in Hawaii.

I remember when I first moved to Illinois and started teaching. There were some parents who marveled at the fact that I spoke English. Even my principal was happy that I "spoke good English." They actually asked me if we used American money in Hawaii. Several parents thought I had to be an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher. Sigh... And yet it's OK that they asked so that I could correct their misinformation.

One of the first things I taught my class was the fact that Hawaii is the 50th state. We speak English even though it may sometimes sound more like pidgin. We live in homes sort of similar to California or Florida. We don't live in grass shacks. We wear American type clothes; granted mostly shorts and t-shirts. Gracious! We even eat Costco hotdogs! I don't much care for poi although Art loves it.

I saw this information on FactCheck.org:

"Recently FactCheck representatives got a chance to spend some time with the birth certificate, and we can attest to the fact that it is real and three-dimensional and resides at the Obama headquarters in Chicago. We can assure readers that the certificate does bear a raised seal, and that it's stamped on the back by Hawaii state registrar Alvin T. Onaka (who uses a signature stamp rather than signing individual birth certificates). We even brought home a few photographs."

So yes! President Obama IS American even though (BECAUSE) he was born in Hawaii... just like me. OK. Enough! Birthers out there, would you just be quiet and sit down already?

Don't Want to be Trumped

We saw this Los Angeles Times article by Michael Muskal titled Poll puts Trump No. 2 among 2012 GOP field in this morning's paper.

"Donald Trump, the man none of the pundits took seriously as a presidential candidate, shares second place in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, according to the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

Trump is tied at 17 percent with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and just behind ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at 21 percent among Republican primary voters, according to the poll, published yesterday."

Are you kidding? I mean really.

What's he going to do if he doesn't like a dictator? Fire him? He's also been constantly harping on President Obama's birth certificate. Didn't he have to declare a business bankruptcy? Doesn't he have an ego as big as Alaska?

OK... the Republicans have Sarah Palin and they've got the Donald. Yes, they've also got Huckabee and Romney who are probably happy about Trump because he might be making them look good.

This is all making me quite nervous.

Another Shock!

A week ago, Frances wrote me to say she was trying to locate her relatives in Sendai. She wondered if I might know a way to locate them. I provided some People Finder websites, but there were too many people with the same name as her relatives.

I asked my cousin, Masako in Sendai for help. Masako is a new mother and works at her husband's hardware store. She called the Miyagi police, the Miyagino ward office, the neighborhood association that watches over the area, and finally drove to the address that Frances had. She took photos, talked to a neighbor and sent the information back to me to forward on to Frances.

There still hasn't been direct contact with Frances' family, but we know that they are all right. Masako was not able to get more information other than to give Frances the phone number of the police station because Japan has very strict privacy laws. Frances called the number and was eventually able to get more reassuring information.

I found this comment from Frances this morning:

"Because of Kay and her cousin Masako I was able to find my missing relatives in Japan. They were not affected by the earthquake and are fine. Thank you Kay and Masako. You went over and above! What wonderful sweet women you both are. I feel like I have two new friends. My family cannot thank you enough!
Love,
Frances"

After feeling pretty wonderful how that all turned out, I got a second e-mail from Frances that she'd heard about another earthquake. Good grief! It was 7.1 this time.

The next e-mail came from Masako:

"As you know, we got another very big earthquake again before midnight for about 30 seconds. It was so scary but okay. The NHK radio news reported that a TSUNAMI was sure to come and people around the coastal area should run away to higher places.
(But this time, the height of the TSUNAMI was predicted as one meter, compared with 16m of March 11th.)

Anyway, we were relieved that electricity and water didn’t stop this time. (Gas service has not recovered, yet.)"

Art just reminded me that we were in Japan last year from March 22nd - April 7th. Imagine if we were there this year. It would have been a totally different trip if we would have gone at all.

Did I mention that we are planning to go next year?

I Can't Stand the Suspense!

I hate suspense. Art loves it. I like movies like Pride and Prejudice, Babe, Up, My Fair Lady, Sleepless in Seattle, Departures, Les Choristes, etc. Art likes the other kind.

We have a problem choosing (which Art leaves for me to do) and watching our Netflix movies. However, I do often choose movies for him that I think he'll like. State of Play was a movie I chose for him. This is where the problem comes in.

I can't stand suspense. I like a guarantee of a happy ending or at least a probable happy ending.

Art is very kind about watching some of my movies with me unless it becomes too girly. Then he'll take long breaks or fall asleep. Watching these tense movies with him stresses me out at times, but I've come up with a solution.

We were watching State of Play with Russell Crowe, Rachel McAdams and Ben Affleck. Half way into it, I was getting really agitated so I jumped onto my computer and read the synopsis with the spoiler. Yae! Now that I knew what was going to happen, I could watch the rest of the movie calmly with him. I could even explain some things at the end that he missed. It was a good movie. We both enjoyed it.

Now then... I'll bet you're wondering if I cheat and read the endings of books. I'm not telling.

Driving a Prius to Teach You How to Save Gas

Gas prices are over $4.00 in Hawaii now! We're planning a road trip in a couple of months to Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks and shudder to think what our gas bills will be since we'll be renting a van to hold six people, a wheelchair and assorted grandchild paraphernalia.

We'll have to use all the techniques we've learned with our Prius to save on fuel.

Our town here on Oahu has a LOT of hills so we get only about 50 miles tops per gallon. Usually it's about 45. If we're in Honolulu, it'll be more like 54 miles per gallon.


Here's some stuff we've learned because Art is forever checking our mileage to see how many miles we're getting per gallon.

1. No jack rabbit starts or abrupt stops.
2. No speeding! The Prius shows us when we're using gas instead of battery and we KNOW going fast uses LOTS of fuel.
3. Don't top your tank because the added weight makes your car use more fuel to haul it. In fact, try not to keep heavy stuff in your car because it hurts your gas mileage.
4. Coast down the hill and go up slowly. We have to make sure nobody is behind us going up a hill or we'd drive them crazy. Art doesn't love it when I coast TOO fast down the hill to build momentum to go up the next one.
5. I saw some place where they said to make sure your gas cap is tightly closed because you lose a lot by evaporation.
6. Combine trips! We avoid going out for just one thing.
7. Experts advise you to use cruise control. We don't use it much in Hawaii since we don't drive very far.
8. Art avoids hills. If he can find another way to get someplace that's flatter, that's what he'll do.
9. From KathyG: "Use your air conditioner instead of leaving the windows open. It seemed counterintuitive the first time I heard it, but keeping the windows closed makes the car aerodynamic."
10. From Cousin Walt: "You should check your tire pressure and keep them topped up."

Do you have any other tips? Other than walking, I mean...

Voila! A Patchwork Washer/Dryer Cover

Our washer and dryer were both individually covered to protect it from the rain and dirt since it sits outside on our covered patio. However, because we goofed buying a dryer that was too big, the washer and dryer are too close and cannot fit individual covers.


I had to take out the sides of both covers, add a six inch strip in the middle and sew them together to make one gigantic cover that would accomodate the larger width of the dryer.


The covers are a different color because the older one has been sun bleached longer. I added some rick rack so you would take your eyes away from the mix match patches.

We bought a can of Scotch Guard to make it water repellent.

So there you have it! All done!

Dryer Trouble

"The dryer was making a clunky sound," mom informed us this past Wednesday while we were reading the morning paper.

Art and I decided we'd better start looking around for a new dryer just in case this dryer decided to call it quits. It was here when mom moved in over 10 years ago and looked old then.

We figured we'd start looking early so it would give us a couple of months to make a decision. We went to the Navy Exchange and met Robin. She was extremely knowledgeable about dryers. She said that because we kept our washer and dryer outside like many, many, many families in Hawaii we should avoid dryers with a lot of electronics. That simplified our choice.

Three days later, without additional warning, the dryer went to laundry heaven and left us high and (not) dry. We went back to the NEX where the less elaborate, manual, no electronics dryer was on sale. Woo hoo! The salesperson told us that we should just bring it home ourselves and not pay the $60.00 delivery fee. Sounded good to us. They carefully packed our mini van with the Maytag dryer which barely fit.

It's a good thing our neighbor is a strong fire fighter with two strong sons. They saw that we might need help and rushed over to help us move the dryer from the van to the patio.


We moved the new dryer in front of the old one and saw that it might be a tight squeeze. They must be making dryers wider now.


Art decided to change how the door to the dryer opens since the washer is on the right side. I didn't know you could do that.


"NUTS!" said Art. The dryer is too big. It won't fit."


OK, there's more than one way to skin a cat. Art cut the plastic rim to the laundry sink so the dryer could hit into its place.


OK... not too bad.


The dryer is set up, but now another big problem! The cloth machine covers I sewed for them (to protect from rain) no longer fit because the dryer is bigger and they are too tightly squeezed into place.

Don't worry, I'm working on it.

Have You Heard of Quinoa?

Saturday was such a fun day! My grade school friends, Diane and Joanne along with our line dancing teacher, Jan and her husband, Dave went to Kapiolani Hospital's Vegan cooking class. In three hours we learned quite a bit and sampled some very different dishes.

The first thing we learned was how to make a vegetable soup using vegetable broth, a bunch of vegetables and a food processor. I wasn't used to having soup all mushed up and pureed, but it was spicy and different.

We also learned to make Banana Cornbread without eggs and Pineapple Freeze which is frozen pineapple chunks and vanilla almond milk chopped up in a food processor and frozen into cups. It as quite tasty.

What I really enjoyed learning about was Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah). We learned how to make a Quinoa Salad. Wikipedia says: "Quinoa ( /ˈkiːnwɑː/ or /kɪˈnoʊ.ə/, Spanish: quinua, from Quechua: kinwa), a species of goosefoot (Chenopodium), is a grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds. It is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal, or grain, as it is not a member of the grass family. As a chenopod, quinoa is closely related to species such as beets, spinach, and tumbleweeds.

Quinoa was of great nutritional importance in pre-Columbian Andean civilizations, secondary only to the potato, and was followed in importance by maize. In contemporary times, this crop has become highly appreciated for its nutritional value, as its protein content is very high (12%–18%). Unlike wheat or rice (which are low in lysine), and like oats, quinoa contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for humans, making it an unusually complete protein source among plant foods. It is a good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Quinoa is gluten-free and considered easy to digest. Because of all these characteristics, quinoa is being considered a possible crop in NASA's Controlled Ecological Life Support System for long-duration manned spaceflights."

Cooked quinoa reminded me a bit of couscous. All you had to do was cook the quinoa and add whatever vegetables you like such as garbanzo beans, sweet peppers, green onions, cucumbers, sun dried tomatoes, raisins, etc. To all that you would add firm tofu for added protein.


The dressing was the oil from the sun dried tomato jar, pepper, coarse sea salt and balsamic vinegar. I was surprised at how much I liked it. I'm going to try making this someday soon.

After having sampled all that food, you'd think we'd be too full for lunch. However, when Jan and Dave invited us to have lunch at Siam Kitchen Express which is located at the Waimalu Shopping Center, we couldn't pass up a chance to try something new.

In keeping with the spirit of our class, we had some vegetarian fried rice. It was serious yummm. Art says we'll all have to go there sometime so he and mom can try it out, too.


All in all, this was truly a wonderful day!

Winning the Mega Lottery

We had lottery pools at our school in Illinois. I just never believed it was my destiny to win so when our gym teacher would come around, I rarely participated in it. HOWEVER, when the prize money went up to hundreds of millions of dollars and all the other teachers participated, I did too. I just didn't want to tempt fate and be the ONLY teacher showing up for work at school the day after the winners were announced. I didn't think we'd win. I knew we wouldn't win... but what if?

In New York recently, there were 7 winners in the Mega Millions lottery. Apparently there were 5 people who usually participated, but didn't this time. I listened to one of the poor guys being interviewed and he said he was happy for the others and they were all great people.

This brings to mind something that happened at E.P.A. a long time ago. There actually was somebody at E.P.A. that Art knew who won! I think it was something like 16 million. I can't remember, but it was big. This wasn't a pool. It was all hers.

Art said some of her friends went around collecting money from everybody to throw her a farewell party which they did... throw the party that is.

Art said the woman told everybody she had not yet collected any of her winnings. After the party, they never saw her again.

I guess it's hard to know how people would behave after they won. It's the same thing as wondering how you'd behave at a time of life threatening crisis. You can say you'd do the right thing, but until it happens you don't really know for sure.

Art and I used to buy a $1.00 lottery ticket every couple of months or so just for the dream. We'd plan out how we were going to handle it. Get a financial consultant. Put a bunch in an investment program. Set aside a charity trust. Repave the driveway.

Then we'd think about how it would affect our kids. They might drop out of school. Perhaps they would stop striving toward a goal. They'd be corrupted by the affluence. People would be hounding us. We'd be buried under a mountain of solicitation. We'd have to move away from the neighbors we loved. By the time the winners were announced we were joyous that we didn't win.

Hawaii doesn't have a lottery. Maybe that's why the most popular vacation spot for islanders is Las Vegas.

So what would you do if you won?

About Time for a New Camera

Funny how some things happen. Art was looking in the Sunday paper and saw the Canon SX30IS on sale for $379. He asked if I might like to look at it since I wanted a new camera for our trips to Yellowstone and Glacier as well as Alaska this year. My present Canon Powershot S3IS is OK but I'm having a hard time locking onto a macro photo and I just love to do flower close-ups. Frankly, I think it's broken.


The SX30IS is better at locking onto a macro photo, but still not as good as my even more previous Olympus (which died too soon) used to be. Or... it could be my imagination. Or it could be I'm just not used to using this camera yet.

My older S3IS is a 12X optical zoom. This new camera is a 35X optical zoom. I hope to get a better shot of a penguin on an iceberg when we go on that Alaskan cruise in fall. Just kidding. You can only find penguins in Antarctica. I think. I'd need an even longer lens for that shot.



Anyway, in another of those strange occurrences, we were at the Navy Exchange and played with the new Powershot. The sales person was wonderful in showing us its features and told us she had only one more left (Isn't it always the case?)... and it was $5.00 less than the Sears ad, plus no tax. So what the heck!

We bought it.... in one day! (This could become a habit.)

Anyway, now I have to learn how to use it. I hate learning how to use new electronics. It makes my brain hurt. However, I'll try... or I'll just let Art play with it and explain it to me. That always works for me.

We took my mother and aunt to the Honolulu Foster Botanical Garden to try out my new camera. Although it was sunny when we started out, it poured cats and dogs while we walked around the park.


I'm still figuring this camera out even though it's supposed to be a point and shoot. It occasionally had a hard time locking on to a subject. It could be the fault of the operator, but I'll keep trying.

ENT Doctor Visit

I went to see Dr. Sneshkoff, an ENT (Ear Nose Throat) doctor today. My appointment was at 8:25 AM. and we got to Tripler Army Hospital 15 minutes early. I was taken to a room where the doctor was speaking to a colleague. While Art and I got ourselves settled, Dr. Sneshkoff walked back in and apologized for needing to finish his consultation with the other person. He was still 10 minutes early and he was apologizing. Wow!

He was a really kind, very knowledgeable (shall I add tall, dark and handsome?) specialist. He looked great in his uniform. Marine? However, I swear he looked like he was younger than my son.

It's a good thing I keep a health record with all the pertinent health information I needed because he asked me about all the surgeries I'd had, what the diagnosis had been for my thyroid surgery, etc. I wouldn't have been able to answer any of those questions without the health journal I keep.

I went to see him because I keep feeling like I've got a lump in my throat. I've got two dear friends who have esophageal cancer and it was unnerving me a bit. A few weeks ago I found that even when I raise my head to look up during my Tai Chi exercises, I cough because it feels like the lump presses against the back of my throat.

Anyway, Dr. Sneshkoff did an ultrasound first. He found that I had a bit of scar tissue in my throat which is probably what I'm feeling. He then sent a scope through my nose and down my throat to make sure my voice box was OK. It was.

He says there's tethering at the scar site which is probably what is causing the lumpy feeling, but there's no cure for that. An operation to remove it would only cause more scar tissue. He says the Tai Chi exercise is probably good for it and I should also massage the scar site on my throat to try to loosen the tethering.


I'm thrilled that I'm OK. It was causing me some worry since I really don't want another surgery. Dr. Bentley who did my thyroid surgery in Chicago did a fabulous job and I really wouldn't have wanted that nice scar to be tampered with (especially since I tend to keloid badly). Dr. Bentley had assured me that he would do the surgery so it would just look like a natural fold in my neck.

Well, we've got our Tai Chi lesson tomorrow morning. I guess I won't avoid looking up anymore. I'll position myself in the back where the wind will drown out any cough I might have.

How to Find a Loved One in Japan

Yesterday, a blogger named Frances wrote a comment asking me for help in contacting some loved ones in Sendai.

“I am trying to locate my Japanese relates in Sendai. Please ask your family if they know them and if they have any information. My uncle is Masatoshi Suzuki, cousin's name is Masataka Suzuki and lives at 2-22-22 Miyaginoku Saiwaicho Sendai. My great aunt lived at 191 Higashi Hachibancho. Her name is Kiyako Kihriyama. I would appreciate anything they can tell me. Was that street destroyed, anything. My mother is frantic. Thank you so much if you can help!
Frances Bonner
francesbonner1@yahoo.com
I sent a letter 6 days ago, do you know if they are getting mail, and what are they doing with it if the house is gone?”

I had no idea how to do that since Sendai is such a large city. There are higher and lower elevations there and we were just lucky that our relatives live in a higher area away from the tsunami devastation. We were able to reach them by phone and now can also occasionally write to them by e-mail. They themselves are also still wondering if all their friends are all right in other parts of the city.

Then I remembered a comment I got soon after the tsunami struck from South Lakes Mom. Her blog is called I didn't know THAT!

She wrote:

"Kay, I just found a website where you can interact to see if you can locate your family members in Japan.

http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/"

It was in Japanese so I called my mother to read the instruction. I checked out one of the names that Frances gave me and came up with some information. What a surprise! I'm not positive it's the right person. However, the name she gave me that I typed in showed the address she also included so I'm hoping it's a match!

This morning, I got another e-mail from Frances:

"Thank you so much!! I appreciate it and any other info you can provide. Thank you, thank you!"

If you have another Person-Finder site I can post, please let me know.

Isn't blogging amazing?

POSTSCRIPT: I just got this message from my Sendai cousin, Masako:
"Dear Kay,

I don’t know the person named Masatoshi Suzuki, but I know the areas such as
Saiwaicho, Miyaginoku and Higashi Hachibancho. Both areas are near the center of Sendai. They are not near the coastal areas, and so are not destroyed by the tsunami. I think she doesn’t need to worry so much.

I was very busy at work at the end and the beginning of the month. But, on Sunday, I may be able to go out to find the house 2-22-22 Miyaginoku, Saiwaicho.
Love,
Masako"

Oxford English Dictionary's New Words for 2011

The Oxford English Dictionary now contains some new words for 2011. They've added:
LOL (Laughing Out Loud)
OMG (Oh My God)
BFF (Best Friends Forever)

If they're going to add those, why not ROFL (Rolling on the Floor Laughing) which I've seen countless times?

Art, who is an electrical engineer took issue with the addition of WAG (Wives and Girlfriends). He said WAG is an old engineering term they used for Wild Ass Guess.

I was surprised with the addition of Muffin Top. It's supposed to be that roll of fat over our waist band. OK. I guess it does look rather like that even though I keep trying to pull my waist band over that bundle of fat. Sheesh! (I blame the muffin top problem on the current fashion of having the waist band below your navel! It just forces all that fat over the brim. I need a girdle.)

Then they've got ♥ (heart) to be used as a verb as in "I ♥ Hawaii".

I'll bet those of you Down Under would like this one that I got from the Oxford English Dictionary website:


"The OED aims to cover lexical developments from throughout the English-speaking world. In this update, a few new items from Australian English enter the dictionary for the first time: flat white n., a style of espresso drink with finely textured foamed milk; tragic n., a ‘boring or socially inept person, esp. one with an obsessive interest or hobby’; and yidaki n., an Australian Aboriginal term for the musical instrument better known in English as a didgeridoo."

So who came up with didgeridoo? I thought that was the Aboriginal term.

Hmmmm... interesting...
I looked up "Aloha." Apparently Aloha made the Oxford English Dictionary in 2008.

"Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
aloha /əˈləʊhə/

▶exclamation & noun
a Hawaiian word used when greeting or parting.

– origin C19: from Maori aroha ‘love, affection, pity’."


As a matter of fact, when we were in New Zealand I did discuss the similarities in the Hawaiian and Maori languages with our docent, but that would be a topic for another post.

Sendai Update:

I was 20 when I took my first trip out of Hawaii. I went to Japan and stayed for three weeks at my grandfather's temple meeting relatives I'd only heard about but never met in person. I spent a lot of time with my cousin, Masako and her rambunctious baby brother, Norio. Everybody thought it was humorous that the first English word I probably taught Norio was, "no." Masako was in kindergarten at the time.

I took this photo of the Tanabata festival that I went to with my grandmother, Masako and Norio. We'd gone to an evening kindergarten program to see Masako and her classmates perform. It is still such a beautiful, happy memory.

With letters and the advent of computers, we've been able to maintain contact. Masako has visited us in Chicago and we've spent time with her and the rest of the family in Sendai.

I e-mailed Masako after the earthquake and got this reply yesterday from her.

"I am sorry that I could not reply to you earlier regarding the heavy earthquake which hit Tohoku area. I think you must have been very worried.

We are all okay, including my brother Norio’s family and the relatives in Shichigahama. I am thankful that we are alive, considering the fact so many people lost their lives by this earthquake.

In Miyagi prefecture, more than 6,000 people’s death was confirmed as of today, and the number is increasing everyday. Since there are still many people unidentified and not found yet, I don’t know how many people were actually killed. Many of them were killed by the tsunami which hit coastal areas on the Pacific.

And there is one more great problem which troubles us now. That is radioactive contamination in Fukushima atomic power plant. In Fukushima, there is a big atomic power plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company. (The electricity for Kanto area is produced in Fukushima, not in Kanto.) Since Fukushima plants were damaged by the earthquake, radioactivity continues to leak. The air, the sea, soil are being contaminated. The nation prohibited shipment of some vegetables, milk produced in some areas.

Several days ago, the water purification plant which supplies water to Tokyo areas, showed the relatively high number of radioactivity and the government recommended not to give tap water to babies under 1 year old. So, people rushed to buy mineral waters, and mineral waters are not easy to gain now. A few days ago, the government cancelled this announcement because the number of the Tokyo purification plant showed lower levels, but I am not sure if it is really safe or not. Since my son needs powder milk besides breast milk, I am really worried about the water contamination problem. Not all mineral waters are good for babies, since the high minerals are a burden for the kidneys. Low mineral content in waters under 30% per liter are desirable. Please do not worry so much. I could already secure enough stock of mineral waters with the help of my husband.

For three days after earthquake, I slept with my parents and son in my car. Now, we are sleeping in house. At first, we had no water, electricity, or gas. Later, electricity resumed, and water came yesterday. It will take longer for gas.
(We cannot take a bath until gas is available.)

At first, we couldn’t buy food at all. Today, we are able to buy food, though many shops are still closed and we must wait in long lines to buy.

We cannot obtain gasoline yet. Many gas service stations are closed, and once we find a station open, we must wait 5-6 hours to buy. They won’t supply gasoline for a full tank (like up to 2,000-3,000 yen limitation), so we must return again soon. I am really tired of getting gasoline.

But, I hope things are getting better. Considering many people died, I am thankful for what we have.

Please do not worry. You need not send anything, because I am not sure if the goods will be delivered to our door. Transportation to Tohoku area is limited yet.

Love,
Masako"

A second e-mail followed soon after I wrote to her:

"Hello Kay,
I found another mail from you after I sent my last mail.
Thank you for worrying about my baby and offering a “vacation” in Hawaii.
I really appreciate it.

But, it is difficult to leave Sendai since I must go to work and my parents do not want to leave their house either. Norio already asked my parents again and again to come to his house in Akiu, because Akiu had water supply earlier than Yagiyama and they could take a bath without gas( with electric). But my parents refused. Their Yagiyama house is more comfortable for them.

I am still going to work, leaving my son with my parents. I had many busy days after the earthquake, since so many people rushed to my husband’s shop to buy cassette gas, electric pot, etc. as substitute for gas. Since he cannot collect enough supplies in Sendai, he had employees drive very far to Niigata everyday to obtain goods. (until a few days ago.) Since we cannot obtain gasoline in Sendai, we were getting it in Niigata so far.

I will write again when I can. Please do not worry so much.

Love,
Masako"

Nursery Rhymes (PG)

My 4 year old granddaughter was excited about showing us the nursery rhyme book that she had been compiling at school.

As she showed us several of the rhymes on Skype, I recited some of them for her.

Little Miss Muffet sat on the tuffet eating her curds and whey..
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall...
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star..

When I saw Three Blind Mice, I was going to sing,
"Three blind mice, three blind mice,
See how they run, see how they run,
They all ran after the farmer's wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,
Did you ever see such a thing in your life,
As three blind mice?"

Before I finished the first few words, Tif stopped me with, "Uhhhh...Mom? No, that's not what's written here. The words have been ummmm... altered." Then she read them to me.

"Three nice mice,
Three nice mice
See how nice they are
See how nice they are
They’re always polite
When they nibble their cheese
They cover their noses
Whenever they sneeze
Ah, Ah, Ah, Chooo!
Three nice mice"

I must say, this new teacher adapted version is a lot more PG and less bloodthirsty. When you think about some of our English/American fairy tales and nursery rhymes, they're pretty darn violent. I can see why KC's pre-school teacher wanted to edit the original even though the words sounded a little strange to me. I guess I didn't pay much attention to the words when I was a child.

Earth Hour 2011

Dina of Jerusalem Hills Daily Photo mentioned how Israel celebrated their Earth Hour on Thursday.



I haven't seen any news about Hawaii's participation, but found this on the web. Looks like Hawaii is joining the world at 8:30 tonight for our Earth Hour.

I'm all for it! I'll have to get our candles out. I'm just so glad we've got our solar panels, Prius, CFLs, energy efficient appliances, etc. We can all make a difference if we just try.

POSTSCRIPT on following day: We did it last night! The strange thing is walking around in the dark reminded me of Japan and what many suffered and are still suffering. It made the inconvenience of me choosing to be without electricity for an hour seem trivial.

This morning I got an e-mail at last from my cousin in Sendai. I'll post what she said on Monday.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Linda of Linda Letters recommended we read Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford.

This tells you a bit about it:

“Jamie Ford's first novel explores the age-old conflicts between father and son, the beauty and sadness of what happened to Japanese Americans in the Seattle area during World War II, and the depths and longing of deep-heart love. An impressive, bitter, and sweet debut.”
-- Lisa See, bestselling author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

I have to agree with Linda that this is a wonderful book, but I don't quite get what Lisa See meant about the "beauty" of what happened to Japanese Americans".

I've always known about the Internment Camps, of course. Art's aunt's book was published about the Japanese Americans in Hawaii who were sent to the camps. In Hawaii, the people who were taken away were generally those who were leaders or men of influence or learning. Since my grandfather was a Buddhist priest, he was on the list though he left Molokai's Kalaupapa before it all happened.

Still, although I knew all this, Jamie Ford's book made it even more real and gut wrenching. The prejudice and hatred directed against even a 2nd generation Japanese American was painful to read about. Art who is usually into Action or Science Fiction books says he'll read it before I return it to the library for the next person on the Hold list. Now, that's a surprise!

To be perfectly honest, when I saw that Mr. Ford was actually half Chinese and his story is about the hatred many Chinese felt for the Japanese, I expected a story slanted toward something he must be acutely familiar with. Instead, he writes objectively about this terrible time and lets you decide. I was really drawn into the story and did wipe bitter sweet tears away at the end. Still, like Linda, I wished there was another chapter. I wanted to know more about what happened to Henry's lifelong love, Keiko.

Hmmm... maybe that could be another book?

Here is Janice of My Reading Diary's review on this book.

I Still Love Libraries!

I am enjoying my Kindle, however I still haven't bought any e-books off of Amazon. I've merely downloaded free books if I see anything interesting. Most of the free limited promotional books are either Christian themed, sex laden or spooky looking. I haven't seen any books by current popular authors, even their old books. Still, it's OK because I've got about a hundred books (95% classics) uploaded on my Kindle.

I did want to read Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford because so many of you recommended it.

I was looking at the Hawaii Library System online website and found that I could put a hold/save on a book. Just for fun, I put a hold on Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. There was a LONG wait list. I figured I'd get to read it next year, but lo and behold, I got a card in the mail a month later saying it was ready for pick up.

While at the library to pick up the book, I checked the Friends of the Library second hand book shelf. Paperbacks were on sale for 50 cents a book. I bought these six books for $3.00 AND I can loan them to my friends when I'm done!

So there you have it. I like my Kindle, but I still love my library!

Oh dear! I hope you authors out there won't be upset with me. I'm going to curl up with Mr. Ford's book now and finish it as quickly as I can so that the next person in queue will get it faster. (I'll have something to say about this book later.)

Battle of the Bees

My mother is allergic to bee stings so we have to be careful. Carpenter bees have a warren of nests in the old fencing that belongs to our neighbors. A couple of years ago when we had areas of the house fumigated because of the termite problem, we counted nearly two hundred carpenter bees that tragically died (that we hadn't intended at the time). We have since tried very hard to stay away from poison to deal with our problem because we really do need our bees.

However, they are in direct line of the narrow passage that Mom walks through to do her gardening and have been harassing her everyday.

I thought some wood colored caulk would take care of the problem. I caulked all the holes I could see as well as below the fence where they seemed to have dug their entrance ways.

I figured if I closed the doors to their entrance ways, they'd go somewhere else to set up their villages.

This golden bee tried to go in, then seemed to look at me and say, "OK...I give up, I think I'll head toward Kaneohe instead."

What a shock when I woke up this morning! I thought maybe Art didn't think I did a good enough job and had dug the holes out for me to redo. No, he wouldn't do that, but he always says I look for a way to place the blame on him first.

Then I looked below the holes and realized the bees had dug out the caulking I did the evening before all by themselves. Good grief!

OK... they've won this battle.

Unfortunately, I will have to escalate. I'll be caulking in the morning to give the caulk more time to dry. And I'm going to use a mirror to find all the holes below eye level that I must have missed before.

It's not over yet!

POSTSCRIPT: I'm glad to know the male bees don't sting. It's only the females that do. I thought I heard something under Art's breath when I told him, but he denies it completely. Now then... how can you tell which are the boy bees?

Our Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day!

Judith Viorst is the author of the wonderful picture book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. (The click feature on this photo does not work because I copied it off the Amazon site. If you clink on the link, it will take you directly to the correct site where you can get a better look at the book.) I used to read this book to my class to explain to children that sometimes we all have those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days.

Today we had one of those days.


Early this morning, Art found a large bag of boiled peanuts at the back of the fridge. "Whose peanuts are these?" he yelled from the other room.

"Oh nuts!" I meant to give those to my brother, but I forgot! No wonder he didn't thank me for them. (We decided to just eat them ourselves since they were now a week old. If I get a stomach ache, it'll be my fault. I'm hoping the light salt in it will keep us safe.)

We went shopping and found a great 20% off sale. The cashier at check out said only one of the items was on sale, but the others weren't. We left the store. However, it bothered me enough that we went back in and I checked all the sales signs again. Yup! There it was! It was all supposed to be on sale. Went to the customer service line and had to wait and wait and wait to get it corrected. I felt badly for the people behind us.


Arrived home at around 1:30 having missed lunch. My mother met us at the door, all upset and miserable. "The toilet broke!" she said. "I took off the tank cover to see what was wrong and the water shot out at me and got on everything. And where did you put my Fosamax pills? I can't find them anywhere."

"Hunh?" I never touch her Fosamax pills.


We bought these 2.5 gallon Nestle plastic bottles of water (for our disaster kit) before and one of them leaked and damaged the laminate flooring in the closet. I could not believe it, but we thought it was a fluke.

NOPE! When I checked the three we bought today after bringing the groceries in, I saw that two of the three containers had leaks!!! AGAIN! Doggone it! (I blame Art. I wanted to buy the smaller bottles, but he didn't want to pay the deposits on each bottle.)


Well... we did manage to quickly fix the toilet. The chain was broken and the hose had popped out of the thingamagig.

Art found the Fosamax. Mom had thrown it in the garbage can. She must have been distracted and threw it away instead of storing it back in the cupboard.

Tonight, I got on the scale and discovered I gained four pounds. Arrrrghhhh!

It's the yin and yang of things. The leak happened before we put it in the closet this time so it's taught us to store it in a plastic storage container from now on. The toilet is fixed, the medicine is found, I'd better exercise and I think I'll go to bed early tonight... ummm....after Hawaii 5-0 that is. It better not be a rerun again.