Pain In His Fingers

Ever since Art did our taxes earlier in the year, his fingers have been hurting him.

Since his mother suffered from arthritis and her fingers were all fused completely stiff, he was concerned that it might be his fate as well.

I was always amazed at how his mom stayed cheerful and more concerned with others rather than herself until the day we lost her. She was truly one of a kind.

Art mentioned the pain in his fingers to our nurse practitioner and she sent him to occupational therapy to check it out. She also had him take a blood test to make sure he doesn't have rheumatoid arthritis.

The blood test was thankfully negative, but X-rays showed he had a mild osteoarthritis. The doctor gave Art a paraffin wax treatment. She soaked his hands in the paraffin and put the gloves on to retain the heat.

She then explained to Art that as we age we should protect our fingers because our finger joints could become vulnerable.

He was also given several handouts with information to keep in mind.

I found several of them helpful to me.

With tax season coming up again, she recommended Art getting a pencil grip or an ergonomic pen.

It's all something for everyone to keep in mind before it's too late.

2015 Zumba Party

Our Zumba Holiday Party is something I always look forward to each year since 2012. This is with the group of friends who keep me wanting to go to exercise class throughout the year.

This year our party was at Paesano in the Waimalu Plaza.

The restaurant had set the tables beautifully for us with fresh red roses.

After everyone arrived we shared our favors with each other which was then put into gift bags that Naomi gave us to bring home.

The menu was Italian and I decided on Scallops Scampi.

This is my dish.

The dish below is a clam linguini and below that is a chicken vegetable dish.

Naomi and  Myrtle thought up games for us to play individually and in  teams.

This first photo shows how groups of threes had to build a snowman with cotton balls balancing on one person's head.

Of course we all voted for our own team so we were all winners.

We then took turns telling the group about the highlight of our year.

Naomi very generously bought desserts for all of us to share. The first was a mousse, I believe and the one below was tiramisu.

And here's eleven of the wonderful ladies that I exercise with. One person was not there and we missed having her join us.

And here are the wonderful favors that each person brought. Art, mom and I had a lot of wonderful desserts to share tonight.

The best gift of all truly has been the friendship and camaraderie we've been able to share throughout the year as we help each other try to keep healthy.

And now tomorrow I'll be working on burning the calories I ate.

Albums of Happy Memories

One morning a couple of weeks ago I spied Mom looking through two travel albums that we'd put together a few years ago. Putting together these albums take a LOT of time, a LOT of time. It's painstaking, often tedious and prevents me from getting other things done (like my blog and visiting).

However, here she was looking through the two albums where we'd taken her and her sister, Auntie Grace to Japan, the National Parks on the west coast and Canada and she was smiling ear to ear, occasionally chuckling with remembrance. Auntie Grace passed away last February and Mom is only now able to look back and smile at the happy times they had together.

The next day, she once again looked over all the photos in the book we made for her about the trip to Seattle and Vancouver that we took this past April.

I think it's really true that more than material things, what makes a person happiest are the precious memories they can gather and remember.

So we'll continue to take the time to make our albums.  Please forgive me for not having been able to visit these last few weeks. I'll look forward to catching up, once things return to normal.

Water Heater Genius

"Kaaaay!" called Mom frantically one night last week. "There's no hot water!"

We'd just paid for a new timing belt for our car and dreaded more bad news. We hoped Mom was mistaken and just hadn't waited long enough for the hot water to get through from the heater to her bathroom.

Nope. There was no hot water. Art checked the heater and found that it seemed to have just died!

I began looking online to see about calling in a repairman as well as how much a new water heater would cost. I was resigned to another costly fix.

And then Art discovered how to turn on the water heater and we were able to take a bath.

However, the following morning the water heater had turned off again.

I restarted the process of deciding who we should call to fix the problem.

"Wait!" said Art. He found this little thingamajig that said "ON" that was under the heater.  It appeared to have fallen off.

Apparently it was the ON switch for the heater. The ON switch had somehow fallen off the timer and only the OFF switch was still on.

"OH MY GOSH! You are a genius!" I exclaimed. Mom said she always knew what an amazing guy he was.

"Ummmm...." laughed Art. "Actually, all you had to do was read the directions on the inside of the timer."

"But you are a genius," I said. "Who would have thought to find and read the directions?"

Dengue Fever Fear

People in Hawaii are nervous now with the outbreak of Dengue Fever. So far, it's been localized to the Big Island although we did have one case of it on Oahu. The Oahu case was someone who contracted it during a trip to Southeast Asia. That person's strain is different from the one that is worrying all Big Islanders.

The number of people getting Dengue Fever climbs every day. There is no vaccine for this mosquito borne disease.

Mosquito repellents are flying off the shelves on the Big Island.

The evening news reported that a new mosquito deterrent has been found.

I'm sure many people know that Avon's Skin-So-Soft works well. Art took it to Africa with him when he visited our son, Keola while he was serving in the Peace Corps. They traveled from West Africa to Tanzania to climb Kilimanjaro together.

Now the news is that Victoria Secret's Bombshell perfume works well too.

The problem is that it's not cheap. This small bottle is about $25.

The Avon products are more than half the price and have already been used by a lot of people.

I've read other articles by technicians who tested Bombshell who said you would have to liberally douse yourself with the perfume for it to be effective.

Hmmmm....

I'm thinking Art might not appreciate smelling like a flower when he goes outside.

Back to Hawaii

We got up at 4:15 and was out the door by 5:00 for the flight out of O'Hare Airport to return to Hawaii. There was one stop over in Phoenix and traveling was fine since we were equipped with our MacBook Air, iPad, and Kindle.

There was only one problem. On the second leg of our flight I wasn't feeling well. My stomach started to rebel for some reason and I was exhausted. (And I'm still sick.)

Our friends, Morris and Jane met us at Honolulu International Airport to drive us home.

It was good to be home.

Yes, Hawaii is home.

However, Chicago will always be home too.

POSTSCRIPT: Doggone it! Hawaiiantel came to repair our Internet line and now it's completely dead!  I'm writing this postscript with my cellphone. They're coming on Sunday!

Halloween Idea

Halloween in Pennsylvania with our son and his family was a lot of fun. Our grandson is still too young to understand what Halloween is about, but we celebrated the holiday anyway. It was a gorgeous evening and we had over 80 trick-or-treaters.

I loved this idea they had in Keola's neighborhood. I was surprised they celebrated on Thursday evening instead of Saturday though.

This is the picture that was posted on our door to let children know we were participating in the fun.

Incredibly, even though four big bags were bought, we still ran out of candy and had to take this picture down.

Back in Illinois, my granddaughter had a great time trick or treating with her friends even though it did rain a little.

In Hawaii, mom said there were NO trick-or-treaters. That was a surprise because we'd given mom a giant box of candy to pass out and she'd turned her outside light on to let children know she was open to giving out candy.

Did you get many trick or treaters this year?

Anniversary Celebration

Another favorite outing for us in Chicago is our annual Anniversary Dinner with two other couples. We have known them ever since we moved to Chicago in 1974 and have been celebrating our January anniversaries together since 1981.

We used to take turns choosing a movie and restaurant every January but eventually we decided that we would just take turns hosting a dinner every third year with one couple bringing a salad and the other couple a dessert. When we moved to Hawaii, the anniversary dinners were planned around our schedule.

This year Diane went all out with lasagna, incredible hors d'oeuvres, wine, etc. Terry made THE most amazing salad. I was a slouch and brought a fruit tart from Mariano's.

Sigh... It's our turn to host next year. The pressure is on. Luckily, I'll have my daughter, Tiffany to help me. Yae!

Let's see... teriyaki chicken and beef? Some Korean chap chae? Sushi? Hmmm....

Mother and Daughter Luncheon

I love seeing my teacher friends whenever we're in Chicago and Art loves spending some time with his EPA friends. Their regular meeting place is Jason's Deli in Schaumburg. Tiffany and I always go along so we can drop him off and then visit several stores in the vicinity. One of our favorite places is IKEA which is right next door. The big spender that I am, I bought a set of plastic knife guards that was under $5.

The highlight for me that day was to go to Olive Garden and have the all you can eat salad, soup and breadsticks.

We always have the nicest servers there.

Tif and I got to chat about anything and everything.

Since we're apart for the rest of the year, it's a great time to just relax and have a face to face, heart to heart.

Somehow the salad, soup and breadsticks always taste better there.

A Hot Outing

One of the many highlights of returning to Chicago is getting together again with our group of teacher friends. My dearest friend, Gerri emails me months in advance to lock in a date for our outing.

I believe we've had lunches or dinners together at least once a month for over two decades. It's one of the things I miss now that I've moved to Hawaii.

Gerri selected this restaurant for our special day because one of our group is still a youngster and not retired. The restaurant was located near her school. It was an Asian fusion restaurant.

I ordered the pad thai which I really loved. The triangle pieces are fried tofu which I brought home for my granddaughter who loves tofu.

We did have one funny incident. Ummm... well... it wasn't funny for Fran... but... this is what happened.

Several teachers were not familiar with Asian food so she (who will remain nameless) offered what she thought was a lump of guacamole (sitting next to her California roll which she'd never tried before) to Fran. Poor Fran stuck the entire lump into her mouth and nearly spit it across the table. I didn't know what was going on, but was aghast when I learned what had happened.

For those of you who don't know, wasabi is like horseradish, a very STRONG horseradish. You are supposed to dilute a little bit with soy sauce and then dip your sushi or sashimi into it.

Poor Fran... I hope she could taste the rest of her food after that.

I have a feeling we'll be going back to Ruby Tuesdays next time.

A Family and Friends Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving that took two days of food preparation.

On Wednesday, Mom made her kinpira gobo (burdock root) and I made a mochi/lup chong stuffing. It's a very unhealthy sweet rice stuffing full of Chinese sausage, bacon, cilantro, round onion, green onion, etc.  It may be unhealthy, but it's delicious.

On Thanksgiving, Mom made her cucumber namasu, macaroni salad, and fish tempura/konyaku dish. I put together broccoli casserole, soba salad, cranberry (from the can) and mashed potatoes. Art baked his traditional pumpkin pie.

My sister-in-law, Nancy did a fabulous job with the turkey, gravy, stuffing and yam. Our guests brought homemade ice cream, coco puffs, pickled veggie salads, wine and champagne.

We also enjoyed bringing over plates of food for our neighbors who have been so kind to Mom whenever we go to the mainland to visit the kids.

We took a photo to record the happy day. We cherish every occasion when we're able to be together. I'm hoping your day was also precious and fun.

I'm now gearing up for the hectic holiday season ahead. I'm so far behind in finishing all our different projects that I'm feeling overwhelmed.

I'm looking forward to when my life can calm down a bit and I can be 100% healthy again.

Have a great weekend!

Chicago Marathon

One of the things we've tried to do whenever we're in Chicago is to show our support to Tiffany and KC's friend, Jane.

Seeing the Chicago skyline again was a welcoming feeling.

We smiled as we passed Wrigley Field because we were still hopeful that they had a chance of winning the World Series.

Sigh....

When we saw the El tracks again, we knew we were back in Chicago for sure.

KC rang her cow bell and we cheered the runners on. When Jane came into view, we held up our sign for her.

Jane stopped, caught her breath, gave KC a hug and continued on her way to finish the race. We were so proud of her.

After the Marathon, we headed back out to the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Alice the corpse flower was long gone, but I always love taking photos of the water lilies.

Fall colors were everywhere and the day could not be nicer.

We hoped that our daughter and son-in-law were having as nice a day as we were.

Technology Closing the Distance

Technology is amazing.

While we were in Illinois, our son-in-law, Ed helped us upgrade my iPhone 4s to the 6s. He and Tiffany then showed us how to use the new phone and worked out any bugs we needed to fix.

One of the apps we loved on the new cellphone was Find Friends. With this app, we were able to follow Tif and Ed on a map wherever they went in Paris. We knew where they were sightseeing and when they returned to their hotel room. KC thought it was hilarious to "stalk" her parents.

KC was also reassured and happy when her parents would call or Skype showing her their Paris hotel room and letting her know they were safe and enjoying themselves.

Text pictures arrived daily letting us know what they'd seen.

Tiffany said she actually teared up when she saw the famous IM Pei pyramid at the Louvre. She could hardly believe she was in Paris.

This was a time of happiness and excitement. Walking along the Seine was magical for them.

It's sad to know what has happened since.

We are truly thankful they were able to have this time before violence and evil rocked the City of Lights.

As we enjoy this day of Thanksgiving, I'd like to wish you all a day to love each other and to be glad for moments of peace when we can have it.

Technology brings loved ones closer together, but it seems to bring the terror of the world closer. And that's important too for we need to love everyone and help each other.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Sick!!!

During that week between Tif's birthday and their trip to Paris, I got sick... very sick. It was worrying all of us because I needed to be in tip top shape to enjoy our special week with KC.

I had to postpone outings with friends and spent 4 days in bed exhausted and feverish. Tiffany insisted I stay in bed and provided me with this cool pack.

It's what she uses for KC when she's ill and it's terrific!

It sticks to your head and stays cool for hours. I loved it!

Thank goodness! I did recover in time and we were able to send Tif and Ed off, confident that we would be having a good time too.

Tiffany's Birthday Surprise

My son-in-law, Ed wanted to make Tiffany's 40th birthday extra special. He ran an idea past us early in the year, but I wasn't sure how she would react to it.

When her birthday finally arrived, I was a little nervous in anticipation of the moment she would learn what he'd planned.

Ed treated us all to an elegant lunch at a French bistro called Mon Ami Gabi.

In the evening Ed surprised Tif with a red velvet bundt cake and balloons.

Among the many gifts that Keola showered his sister with, this framed black and white photo really touched Tiffany. This photo was from the collection I'd scanned a couple of years ago for both of them. The photo (right) was taken during a visit to Hawaii some 35 years ago.

We gave Tif a Fit Bit which she immediately put on.

Then came that moment we were waiting for.... the moment the secret would be unveiled.

I was a little nervous knowing that if Art surprised me this way, I would not necessarily be thrilled. I pack at least two weeks in advance and need to psych up for a trip.

This is when I discovered that Ed knew his wife better than I did my daughter.

She was absolutely thrilled. I watched tears stream down her cheeks. I don't recall her being this happy since we surprised her with a Cabbage Patch doll when she was about KC's age.

KC had kept this secret for two weeks and wasn't exactly happy since she wouldn't be going, but was glad that we'd be devoting all our time to her for a week.

Tif and Ed left for Paris the following week and had an absolutely glorious time seeing all the places Tiffany had dreamed of seeing for so many years.

When I think of the terror and horror that has gripped that beautiful city today, I shudder to think what could have been. For Tif and Ed, the tragedy is even more real since they'd walked those streets just a short time ago.

But on Tif's birthday, all was wonder and full of love and happiness. I loved my son-in-law even more that day.

Keola and KC

We were so happy that Keola flew in to help us celebrate our daughter's 40th birthday. He was only able to stay with us for a weekend, but he made it count.

One of the happiest things for us and especially Tiffany was to see how special he made KC feel.

Keola spent a lot of time watching her practice her piano, play with Legos, ice skating and doing something called Mine Craft on her tablet.

KC was so attached to her favorite uncle that she was glued to his side. I was happy to see his patience and loving attention.

Every child should have an uncle like Uncle Keola.

Corner Bakery Mug Morning

I don't know where my daughter, Tiffany finds all these "good deals" but this was a fun one.

Corner Bakery was offering the first 100 customers a free smiley mug on World Smile Day.

We got up early anticipating long lines, but were surprised to find only about 30 people waiting for the cute yellow mugs.

The fun part is bringing the mug in to fill with coffee throughout the year for just 25 cents.

Unfortunately, we don't have a Corner Bakery in Hawaii so I'm just keeping my mug for my collection.

Don't you think they're rather cute?

Swimming, Piano, Skating, Dance, ETC.

One of the things we enjoyed doing while in Chicago was taking 8 year old KC to all her different extra curricular activities.

Tiffany has KC enrolled in myriad classes that I thought at first might be over scheduling.

However, then I saw how much KC enjoyed them all and was unwilling to give up any of them.

Actually, I did also have our kids in Spanish, swimming, piano, and ice skating. I'm glad they were introduced to those skills. I am completely unable to balance on ice skates or swim but my kids can.

I'm wondering how long KC will keep taking these classes.

I have a feeling Tiffany wouldn't mind having a break from driving her everywhere.

What kind of classes did your kids go to?

The Daughter Exceeds the Mother

I consider myself organized, but I was surprised during our stay in Illinois to find that my daughter had labeled all the shelves in the kitchen. This was to insure that people would not misplace things in her small storage area.

I laughed when I saw what she had done but in the days ahead, I would be really grateful for those labels so I could find things easily and put things back where they belong.

Hmmm... maybe I'll have her do it for my kitchen when they come to visit.

A Korean Supermarket in Chicagoland

One of Tiffany's favorite places to shop for groceries and other items is H-Mart which is a Korean supermarket.

It's a HUGE store and the prices are quite reasonable.

We even saw jack fruits there. We have jack fruits in Hawaii but have never eaten it and have no idea how it tastes.

Even at 88 cents a pound, can you imagine how much one of those fruits would cost?

Fish balls? I thought that was rather interesting.

Then there were cheesecake flavored Kit Kats. I took a pass. I really need my Kit Kats to have some kind of chocolate to make it worth my while.

I have no idea how you cook one of those squids. I only eat the sort that have been dried.

I do like these gloves which are super long and strong. Tiffany has kept me supplied with them in Hawaii.

I did buy this little wire basket to bring home to Hawaii to dry my thermos rubber parts by the window.

We have an Asian grocery store called Don Quijote in Hawaii, but H-Mart is larger and everything somehow seemed more foreign. I guess because I just wasn't familiar with a lot of the things that were being sold there.

One thing I was familiar with within the store were little restaurants selling bi bim bop and other Asian food. I really enjoyed that! (This bi bim bop photo was not taken at H-Mart but a different restaurant that Tiffany and my son-in-law took us to.)

I think it's rather funny that we enjoy coming to Chicago so we can go to a Korean grocery store.

Granted, we did go to Trader Joes later.

I'm Baaack...

After being away from writing a blog post for so long is it possible that my brain has atrophied? I've stood here a while just staring at the screen and didn't know how to start.

Ah well... here goes.

We've just returned from a five week stay in Chicago, Hershey and Maryland visiting our children and their families.

After a LONG flight with a stopover in Phoenix we finally touched down at Chicago's O'Hare Airport.

Our daughter, Tiffany was waiting for us and it was more than wonderful to see her again.

She told us that our granddaughter, KC had been counting the days until our arrival.

We arrived at KC's school within minutes of the dismissal bell. It was a wonderful reunion.

Tiffany asked if we were game to see the corpse flower (titan arum) at the Chicago Botanic Garden which was about to bloom. It's supposed to give off a rather noxious odor during it's 24-48 hour blooming time, in order to attract pollinators. They bloom only every 7-10 years so despite the jet lag, it behooved us to go and see it.

The line was long, but not as long as it would get in the evening that we read there was a one and a half hour wait to see the flower.

Another corpse flower at the Chicago Botanic Garden had fizzled out a month or so earlier. That corpse flower was named Spike. This corpse flower was named Alice. They were even selling t-shirts with a picture of "Alice." I hate to think how much money must have been lost on "Spike" t-shirts.

Art loved seeing the bonsai plants with KC.

And then there it was! It was fun to see, but we really couldn't smell anything at all. I learned later that it starts to smell in the evening. I wonder if it did.

After visiting Alice for a while and taking a lot of photos, we headed home where this happy sign was waiting for us.

It was good to be back.

SCAM Warning!

Hello again, everybody!

We returned a few days ago from a five week trip to visit our children and their families in Chicago and Hershey with a side trip into Maryland. It was wonderful to see all of our dear family and much missed friends. However, I caught a nasty cold in the second week and was bedridden for several days. Then I caught another cold just before leaving to return to Hawaii and was bedridden again. It's not often I'm actually bedridden so this was pretty aggravating.

However, things are on the mend and I'm finally feeling better. I'm not ready to start posting yet, but I  felt I needed to do this one WARNING post again.

We got another call from a man with an Indian accent telling us they were from Microsoft because our computer was sending out error messages to their tech department and they needed to correct the problem. They wanted Art to go to the computer and have him punch in some keys so they could help us. Feigning ignorance, Art kept the fellow on the line for quite a while just so he could prevent him from calling somebody else.

This is a terrible SCAM! Apparently these bogus sites are popping up all over and Microsoft cannot stop them all. They sometimes ask for private information or will have you type in codes that will infect your computer so they can sell you something to fix the problem they gave you. An even worse thing they can do is to have you allow them to take over your computer so they can take control of all the information you have stored there.

Anyone in a weak moment could be taken in. I once got a call at 5:00 AM and almost fell for it since I was in a daze.

What I don't understand is why we've gotten over a half dozen of these scam calls in the last year. Wouldn't you think they'd give up and cross our number off their list, especially after I asked one fellow if his mother would be proud of what he was doing. I told him he should get a better job.

I guess he didn't.