Wegman's Ultimate Chocolate Cake

Wegman's is a huge, gorgeous supermarket in the Maryland area and we love going there. One of our daughter's friends had raved about Wegman's Ultimate chocolate cake a few years ago and we looked for a Wegman's bakery on one of our trips but never found it.

We were surprised to find last year that it was actually Wegman's Supermarket.

Keola and Sarah bought it for JD's birthday last year and again this year. I thought it was good then, but I really loved it this year.

I think what sets it apart is the frosting.

I know, I know. Many people feel chocolate cake is chocolate cake. Whatever...

However, my favorite has always been Cheesecake Factory's Linda's Fudge Cake. If I can't have that, I also like Portillo's chocolate cake. And now Wegman's Ultimate Chocolate Cake has nudged into the #2 spot.

I liked it so much that I had this crazy idea to bring a cake back for an anniversary dinner scheduled with two other couples in Illinois. We have celebrated our January anniversaries together for 36 years. When we started returning to Illinois from Hawaii in the summers, our January anniversary celebrations were moved up to August.

I put the cake in a cooler bag with some blue ice and carried it on the plane from Baltimore to Chicago. The landing at O'Hare was jolting and we were sure the cake was a goner, but amazingly, it survived! And yes! Everyone loved it.

Oh... I brought back a slice for our son-in-law who couldn't make the trip to Maryland. He said he thought the secret was in the frosting. And my daughter? She prefers vanilla. How did that happen?

Climbing the Walls

Another passion our son, Keola and Sarah have shared with our granddaughter, KC is their love of wall climbing.

If athleticism and an interest in sports is inherited, the kids did not get it from me. Both our kids were very active and quite successful in a variety of sports in high school. Our grandchildren may be following in their footsteps. They must have gotten this gene from Art who ran the full and half marathon as well as 5K and 10K quite a few times. His doctor has since told him to slow down and not run competitively anymore. Me? Never mind. It's a struggle for him to get me to exercise. 

Oops! I got diverted. Art enjoyed climbing the walls last year, but this time he let KC and Tiffany enjoy the sport with Keola and Sarah. Keola made sure the climbing gear for his sister and niece were well fitting and safe. Art helped JD experience the wall, too. I imagine it's something he'll start to do in a few years.

At one point Tif and KC started the climb together and it became a race. 

Ummm... 

Maybe it's her ballet lessons, or ice skating or whatever else KC is into, she was like a squirrel scampering up the wall.

Whatever the case, Tiffany was right behind her.

Me?

I got to spend quality time with JD and Bert and Ernie on my cellphone.

Pandemic!

Keola is a wonderful uncle. He really makes an effort to give time and attention to 10 year old KC whenever we're visiting and she adores him. KC had been looking forward to playing board games with her uncle again after he introduced a game called Pandemic to her last year. I guess we shouldn't be too surprised that he would choose a game like this since his degree centers on international Epidemiology.

The really unique thing about this game is that everybody has to work together to win. If you don't do the correct moves with emphasis on together, you will have lost and the world would be consumed by the pandemic. I don't know of another game where players work together instead of against each other.

Here's the description I got from Amazon.

"Four diseases have broken out in the world and it is up to a team of specialists in various fields to find cures for these diseases before mankind is wiped out. Players must work together playing to their characters' strengths and planning their strategy of eradication before the diseases overwhelm the world with ever-increasing outbreaks. For example the Operation Specialist can build research stations which are needed to find cures for the diseases. The Scientist needs only 4 cards of a particular disease to cure it instead of the normal 5. But the diseases are out breaking fast and time is running out: the team must try to stem the tide of infection in diseased areas while also towards cures. A truly cooperative game where you all win or you all lose."

Before leaving for Maryland, KC kept reminding us how much she wanted to play Pandemic with Uncle Keola again.

At 10 years of age, I must tell you that my granddaughter is amazing at strategizing. I've seen her play games like Monopoly, Clue and Catan which Keola gave her and it never ceases to impress me.

Sadly, I am not good at any of these games. They did convince me to play one game of Pandemic with them and the world was lost to the disease. After that, I let them save the world without me.

Canstruction in Hawaii

We were at Pearlridge Mall on Wednesday and saw the creative display of storybook scenes using canned goods. It's called Canstruction. All the cans would be donated to the Hawaii Food Bank. There were shopping carts next to each design and people could put in canned food to vote for their favorite for the People's Choice award.

I got this from the AIA (American Institute of Architects) website:

"For the 11th year competing teams, lead by architects builders and allied design and engineering professionals, will showcase their talents by designing giant sculptures made entirely out of canned foods. Canstruction® combines the competitive spirit of a design/build competition with a unique way to help feed hungry people."   

This information was for last year, so this would be the 12th year.

The train is from Harry Potter, of course.

The design on the left is from Wizard of Oz. 

As for myself, my favorite was Curious George. Art says he likes the Wizard of Oz "Can'sas" design best.

We're going to bring mom next time and we'll all bring a can to vote for our favorite. I wonder which one she'll choose.

Which design would you vote for?

Balloons! Balloons! Balloons!

Our daughter, Tiffany and granddaughter, KC had driven us back to our hotel for the evening and had then driven back to our son, Keola's apartment the night before our grandson, JD's 2nd birthday. They spent a couple of hours there blowing up a ton of balloons which they hid in a room so JD wouldn't see them when he woke up.

After we got back from the park, exhausted little JD was put down for a nap. While he was sleeping we decorated the living room with streamers and covered the floor with the balloons they'd blown up the night before. I could hardly believe how many there were!

When JD got up and walked into the room, we all yelled, "Happy Birthday!" He was dazed, stunned and then ecstatic. He ran about the room making the balloons dance and fly around him. It was glorious to watch him delighting in the fun of it all.

In later days, the balloons were corralled in his playpen where he and KC would hide and pop up to make everyone laugh. JD would call out to KC and laugh uproariously when she'd jump up and make the balloons fly out of the playpen.

The  happiest birthday surprise of all was learning that little JD would soon have a baby brother to play with. We knew about the addition to the family but we learned whether we'd have another grandson or granddaughter after having JD's birthday cake.

I wonder if they'll blow up more balloons for JD's brother when he is 2 years old. Oh my!

The Perfect Birthday for a Two Year Old

We struggled to come up with a special way to celebrate our grandson's 2nd birthday. The aquarium was considered since our grandson loves the lobster tank at the supermarket. The distance, appropriateness for a two year old, and cost of admission at various other museums were also debated. Admission prices for our group would have been pretty high at most of those places although we would have been happy to help cover the cost.

No decision had been made by the time we left the evening before JD's birthday. When we arrived the following morning Keola told us that they'd found a place they thought JD would like. It was about a 45 minute drive to Wheaton Regional Park.

Both JD and 10 year old KC absolutely loved it! Their parents and grandparents enjoyed it too.  It was a massive park with a little train, merry-go-round and huge playground. There was just a little charge for riding the train and merry-go-round, but all in all, the cost was minimal and we had a fabulous time.

Isn't it wonderful to find a way to celebrate a milestone without breaking the bank? I know JD enjoyed this sunshine play day just as much as a huge, expensive party.

Hmmmm.... I wonder what they'll do for his 3rd birthday.

Blue Crab

On our second day in Maryland, our son and daughter-in-law said they would be taking us to The Point Crab House and Grill in Arnold, Maryland. They had us watch a video first on how to eat a Maryland Blue crab.

The Point Crab House and Grill sits alongside Mill Creek, Maryland. We ate outside under the umbrellas.

When the crabs arrived, the idea of eating them seemed a bit daunting. They were covered with Old Bay seasoning. That was the first time we'd heard of Old Bay.

With prompting from our server, son, Keola and daughter-in-law, Sarah we managed to learn how to get the tasty, sweet morsels from the shell.

Sarah's dad, Keola and Tiffany took turns taking our 2 year old grandson JD for a walk while we enjoyed the crabs.

It was such a fun start to our visit to the East coast. It was just wonderful being together again to enjoy such a delicious experience. In fact, we loved the Old Bay so much that Keola bought us a can of it to bring home. We did discover later that they sell Old Bay in Hawaii. We have since sprinkled Old Bay on vegetables, fish, chicken, even popcorn and loved it!

America First?

Art was happily reading the Sunday paper and showed me an Associated Press column about Puerto Rico. There was a joke circulating that Trump, who is touting America First probably didn't even know that Puerto Rico was a U.S. territory and that citizens living there were American citizens. They pay most of the federal taxes.

Well, it turns out that according to a New York Times poll, more than half of the mainland population did not know that those victims of Hurricane Maria are definitely Americans.

I can most certainly relate to this.

When I arrived in Illinois in 1974, I remember people thinking of us as somewhat exotic.

When I started teaching in 1985, most parents assumed I had to be the ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher. One parent told me her son was upset because he thought he was put in the wrong room.

Parents asked if I lived in a "normal" home. They assumed I had been living in a grass shack in Hawaii. (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

One person even assumed I was only hired for diversity and nothing else.

When the principal was hiring a new teacher, he privately told me that there was a candidate from Hawaii who was highly qualified and she would definitely be considered because... well... she spoke English like me.

I'm glad I didn't roll up my eyes. I had to grin and bear it a lot in those days.

Just recently someone from the mainland said they were coming to Hawaii and asked us if they could use American money here. Sigh...

The Puerto Ricans are Americans and they need help badly. Trump says getting help to Puerto Rico is difficult because, "it's on an island in the middle of the ocean."

I got this from MSNBC.

"Not to put too fine a point on this, but Puerto Rico is in the Caribbean. The U.S. territory is not around the corner, but from Miami, it’s about 1,000 miles – roughly the distance from the White House to the president’s Floridian golf resort. Puerto Rico is obviously an island, but it’s not “in the middle” of a “very big ocean.”

This is really spooky because Hawaii is much more so in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a very big ocean. We've been told that we need to always be prepared for a hurricane. We're told to keep a week's worth of emergency supplies. Maybe we need enough for a month?

And by the way, we are the 50th state, we use U.S. currency, we speak English and we live in homes similar to Florida or California. We sent our donations to The Hispanic Federation and hope others will aid those Americans suffering in Puerto Rico also.

Shoe Goo to the Rescue

We had huge plans for our three days in Washington, D.C. this summer.

However, back at the hotel after the first day at the National Zoo, I discovered that the sole of my shoe had separated. I had not brought an extra pair. I really didn't think I would need a back up pair for just three days. Now what was I to do? I didn't want to walk all over the mall in slippers the next day.

And I really didn't want to waste precious time looking for a new pair of shoes.

That evening, while I stayed back at the hotel Art, our daughter and granddaughter went out for a long walk along the mall.

They returned with Shoe Goo!

Art glued the sole back on and tied it with strips of the plastic bag it came in.

Incredibly, it WORKED! The shoe held all through the trip and through the summer in Maryland and Illinois and back in Hawaii. It's incredible.

I'm thinking that for our next trip, maybe I don't have to bring an extra pair of shoes. I can just bring the Shoe Goo.

Expedia Malfunction Aggravation!

We spent one day in Illinois packing a sturdy cardboard box of toys and other gifts for our grandson. Our daughter, Tiffany had saved a bunch of KC's toys to pass on to her little cousin.

It was a less than 2 hour flight to the Baltimore/Washington D.C. airport. Art had used Expedia to purchase an American Airlines flight/Dollar rental car bundle.  And then the aggravation began.

American Airlines had misplaced our large check-In box of gifts for our little grandson, JD. Yikes! However, they said they would find it and send it to our hotel.

Our son, Keola met us at luggage claim with our adorable grandson, JD. (OK, I am a little biased) and told us they'd expect us over at their apartment as soon as we got our rental car from Dollar.

We caught the shuttle to Dollar and was told they didn't have our reservation from Expedia. What??!?

Art and Tif tried to find a number online to call Expedia and found it was next to impossible to find someone who could address the problem. Tif luckily found an outlet to plug their cellphones into so that they wouldn't get cut off while being put on hold several times.

Expedia finally agreed that they would refund $355 and $50 in Expedia travel vouchers for a total of $405 they owed us. However we needed to find a car on our own. Alamo was charging $428. and Dollar was even more. Luckily, our son-in-law in Chicago found us a cheaper car at Hertz and after TWO HOURS of wrangling with Expedia who did admit it was their mistake, we were on our way.

Lesson learned? We're never using Expedia again. This was a terrible beginning to our trip to the East coast, but things would look up the next day and the next.

And the missing box of gifts for little JD? American did find it and delivered it to our hotel as promised.

What a day!

POSTSCRIPT: Art just told me that Expedia refunded the $355, but never gave the promised $50 voucher. Doesn't matter because we are never using Expedia again! Arrrghhhh!

Underseat Hassle on United's Boeing #777

We flew to O'Hare Airport in Chicago on the United Airlines Boeing #777. I do like the fact that we can now charge our devices on the airplanes. However, there were some irritating problems with that line of aircraft.

On the way to Chicago, I was excited about trying out my new underseat rolling carry-on. We sat in the back where there were just two seats so we could have our privacy. There was one underseat space for both of us. That was OK. My rolling case managed to juuust squeeze in, but just barely. The little green light charger thing takes up some space so you can't fit something too high there. Art's backpack could squeeze in alongside it.

The seats could also only recline 3 inches which actually was not bad since it's really hard when somebody leans all the way back.

We thought our seat was broken because it seemed like you couldn't recline at all. But no. It's just United's way to squeeze more people into a small space.

In fact, my son-in-law unknowingly suggested we change our seat assignment for our return flight to Hawaii so we could recline a little for the long eight and a half hour flight home.

Of course, we then discovered that all United Economy #777 flights only recline 3 inches.

We'd changed our reservation to the center seating area for that return flight and discovered to our dismay that Art had to share the center underseat space with someone. There were only three underseat storage for four people. Once he stuck his backpack under the seat, there was hardly any room left. We hoped the other two seats wouldn't be occupied but a late arrival came in. Luckily they didn't mind.

The other problem was that the call button was on the top of the arm rest. People could and did inadvertently press that button making the flight attendants work even harder walking up and down the aisle asking someone to turn off that call button.

Other than that, on the way to Illinois the flight attendants insisted we didn't have to pay for our $10 meals because we were the last ones served. That was very nice.

Flying is not fun anymore!

Summer on the Mainland

We spent a big chunk of our summer on the mainland. We first landed in Chicago, repacked our things at our daughter's house and then flew to Maryland with Tiffany and KC to visit our son, Keola and his family.

When we landed at O'Hare at 5:00 AM we were surprised to see a long, long line stretching across the United corridor. Flyers were all grabbing a quick McDonalds breakfast.

A gorgeous morning sunrise greeted us as we stepped outside with our luggage where our daughter met us a few minutes later.

When we arrived at their home, our granddaughter, KC had hung a sign on their doorway to greet us.

It was good to be back again.

Kneeling With Kaepernick

Colin Kaepernick is once more in the news since #45 has started a rant against sports teams after they hurt his feelings when the NBA champions Warriors basketball player, Stephen Curry said he didn't want to go to the White House because of Trump causing such divisiveness in our country.  Then Trump rescinded the White House invitation for the entire team.

He went on in tweets and speeches that sports teams should fire any player who doesn't respect the flag and condemned any player who didn't stand for the National Anthem. He even called them, "Sons of bitches."

He was referring to players who were backing Colin Kaepernick who decided to kneel during the playing of the national anthem to show his support of Black Lives Matter and protesting police violence against African Americans.

From all I've read, Kaepernick is a very religious Christian man. He is an activist who donates a lot of money and time to charitable works.

He carefully chose a peaceful way to protest what he is seeing in this country. This was a very interesting article in the Washington Post about Kaepernick's religious ideals.

There was also a comparison to Tim Tebow's religious act of kneeling.

The Washington Post article also stated, "I understand that Kaepernick first chose to sit for the anthem, then changed his mind to kneel to show greater respect for the American military, after a conversation with a veteran."

And what happened? He became a pariah. No team has signed him this year from what I understand. He's gotten death threats and become the most hated player in the NFL according to a poll.

So here is a very devout Christian who felt it was important to show his support for African Americans who have been discriminated against and to do so in the most peaceful way he could. He needed to do something to bring attention to a situation where prejudice is rearing its ugly head. He didn't turn his back on the flag or burn it or give it the finger or any other repulsive thing. He chose a Christian position of kneeling.

It reminded me of a poem by Langston Hughes that I saw in the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. this summer.

What's happening in this country scares me now.

Hatred and anger are being fueled through tweets and other social media.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. of NASCAR quoted JFK, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

America is not looking like the nation I was proud of.

It's sad, very sad.

Making My Corrections and Checking It Twice

As I work on my photobook, I had to look up something that puzzled me for a long time. Do you put an apostrophe when talking about more than one family member with the same name? Do you write Smith's or Smiths. I've seen a lot of people write Smith's with the apostrophe so I looked it up.

I found an answer in a blog site called WriteShop.

OK... Now I know. NO apostrophe for plural family members.

I want to also remind some lovely people that it's awww not awe to express warm fuzzy experiences.
And it's yay, not yae or yea.

Then there's hunh? or huh? I looked it up in the Urban Dictionary and I guess either actually works.

Hmmmmm.... know of anything else?

OK... Back to work on my photobook. Sigh....

Equifax SCARE!

Very good friends of ours mentioned that they'd been checking constantly to see if I might have started posting on my blog yet. Sigh... I've been so preoccupied with our travel photobooks that it's consuming all my spare time. It was suggested that I write a post a week until I can restart my blog on its usual schedule just so they'd have something to reward their efforts for keeping in touch.

Hmmm... sounded like a good idea. So here goes.

Has the Equifax breach scared you? It sure has us shivering in our boots (or slippers... whatever). We checked with Equifax and got the message that... yes... we are at risk. Arrrrghhh!

TV news said putting a freeze on your credit was one way to protect yourself, but it could cause some difficulties too for many reasons. We looked online and were getting more and more confused as to what to do.

We tried freezing our credit with Equifax online, but it didn't work. When we called them, they said their service was overwhelmed. We tried Experian and that didn't work either. We then looked at the 3rd credit reporting site, TransUnion and saw this. It said it was a way to lock your credit rating and to inform you of anyone trying to open an account in your name.

FREE sounded really good.

So we signed up.

Then I told our son-in-law in the morning about how locking it as opposed to freezing it (which is a little trickier) was FREE.

So he looked and asked why they would ask for a credit card if it was free.

Sigh... in our tiredness after looking at all these sites and filling out information constantly, we didn't read the fine print.

It's free for 7 (or was it 30?) days. Then they start charging you $19.95 a month.

Arrrrghhhh!

Sooooo.....

Now we had to figure out how to cancel.

It was very, very, very HARD!!!

They make it very, very, very difficult to cancel once you sign on.

We called TransUnion and were on the phone for 35 minutes waiting to speak to a live person and gave up. I was finally able to figure it out on my own and managed to cancel, but it was exhausting and stressful!

So no...

We won't do the lock.

I  still don't know if the freeze is the way to go. Art says AAA already monitors our credit so maybe, maybe, maybe that's some protection.

How do you know?

What have you done?

POSTSCRIPT: I was still so worried that I asked my son-in-law what we should do. He told us not to do the freeze and just monitor our credit reports. Don't tell him, but just in case... we went to the bank and asked them the same question. The manager told me the same thing. She said any bank account we have is safe, but as our son-in-law said, we should keep a close watch on our credit reports, charge cards, etc.

OK....

The more I hear, the more I'm disgusted with Equifax.

Yes, It Was Awesome!

Hello Everybody!

I'm back from our trip to the East coast and Midwest. However, I now have almost 4,000 photos to go through and create photobooks for my granddaughter and grandson to remember this memorable summer.

We saw and did so much! And yes, we saw totality on August 21st, but not without a lot of planning and readjustment by my Super Techie son-in-law.

I'm afraid I'll still need to continue my hiatus but I've already created a long list of ideas for posts that I'll be writing about our fun, aggravating, touching, maddening, loving, educational, fabulous experiences. (Once I'm done with the photobooks, that is.)

Thank you so much for caring about me and letting me know you're thinking about what I'm up to. I'm sending you all my aloha from the middle of the Pacific.

POSTSCRIPT:

OK, OK... You guys are too funny! Yes, I did get off the ground, but just not at the same time as Art and KC. Sigh... Not as easy as you might think.

Blog Hiatus

Sigh...

I'm afraid my brain is closing down for the summer. There are just too many things happening. Although I may pop in here and there, I shall be taking another blog hiatus.

I'll be missing you all, but as the Terminator says, "I'll be back."

Stone Lantern Project: All done!

It was a lot of hard work. Mari's Garden had given us a $50 discount because the lantern was so badly stained with red dirt. We spent more than that on different solutions to clean it, brushes, grinders, etc.

This is what it looked like at the garden.

Ever since we've been working on our stone lantern, Art has been noticing that a LOT of our neighbors have stone lanterns too.

I wonder where they got theirs.

As you can see, Art was now determined.

No more Mr. Gentle Guy.

He used his power drill and attached a paint stripping grinding disk.

He was really enjoying seeing the granite's coloring coming back as he stripped the layer of the stain off.

He was working on the roof of the lantern here.

And here's the stand.

Isn't it amazing?

And here it is! All done! At last!

A Memory of Love

I was looking through my photo files just now and came across this memory from 1980. It was taken in California after a joyful, probably exhausting day at Disneyland. I'm sure I've posted this before, but I like looking at it.

Keola was about two years old. Tiffany was almost five.

My younger brother, Dennis and I have always been close. Art and his older sister have also been very close. We hoped for the same for our children and that wish came true.

Keola and Tiffany are opposites in personality and in so many other ways. However, they share a sibling bond that never diminished from the time Keola was born.

Every time I see this photo, it makes me tear a little. They were so beautiful. Well... they still are.

Do Antiperspirant Rumors Stink?

A long, long time ago our son came home and told us that his high school science teacher had told the class that antiperspirants were bad for you because of the aluminum based compound in the product.

Since then, I've tried to use only deodorants. My daughter sent this Greeench deodorant powder a while back because she knew I like to use products that are as natural as possible.

I did try it a couple of times and then went back to my deodorant stick.

Problem is, I just developed some kind of allergy to it. I don't know why. I just started itching under my arms. No fun.

So I went back to trying the Greench powder and the itch went away and I stayed drier. Now I love it!

Since I'm writing this post I thought I'd check up on whether antiperspirants are actually bad for you.

According to Web MD's article Antiperspirant Safety: Should You Sweat It?  this whole antiperspirant scare has been floating around the internet, regurgitated and then spread again despite the fact that research on its dangers has not been replicated and proven. Aluminum or parabens do not get absorbed into your skin enough to cause breast cancer, Alzheimer's or kidney disease.

Phew! OK... I'll use the Greench and maybe go back to trying an antiperspirant again.

Maybe.

POSTSCRIPT: I've discovered that Greeench works well on days that are cooler, but if you're really sweating, it doesn't do much. Sigh...