Biting the Bullet to Upgrade My iPhone

I have the iPhone XR that's 4 years old. It's working fine. I take good care of my phones.

Hooowever... I thought this was a good time to upgrade because I'd read that there was a big improvement in the photo quality of the iPhone14 Pro and I'm really liking the idea of getting better photos for my blog and photobooks. Granted, since I reduce the size of my photos before posting them, you would probably not notice.

Still, I figured it was time for an upgrade when the rubber sides on my not cheap Otterbox Commuter cover started crumbling off.

That's my excuse anyway.

It was a very difficult decision because you get a personal connection with your cellphone. I know it's silly, but it's always with me. I feel like it knows me. It has my pictures on it. It's got all my family and friends on it. 

It always scares me to change technology. I never know what's going to change. I never know for sure if all my information will move over to the new phone correctly.

I know. I know. It's silly.

But then my son-in-law texted me that T-Mobile had a $400 replacement deal for me if my cellphone was in good working order.

So I bit the bullet and did it.

I've read that I could do the iCloud transfer on my own, BUT I just didn't trust myself. 

So we went to the T-Mobile store and had them do it for me. Everyone there was very nice and it got done in about an hour.

And then came the hard part.

I hate this part.

I had to apply the Ailun glass screen protector. Arrrghhh... It's on, but not perfect, a little off center. Dang it! 😑

I bought a different Otterbox cover this time. It's thinner, but is supposed to protect your phone from 3X as many drops as military standard (whatever that means). And the rubber is different.

I also bought the Ailun screen/camera lens protector. 

But doggone it! When I put the Otterbox cover on after applying the Ailun camera lens protector (which was slightly too big), the Otterbox cover bowed and I couldn't easily press the buttons on the side of the phone because now they were misaligned.

I tried putting the camera lens protector on the outside of the Otterbox cover, but it just fell off.... of course.

Sigh...

And this is why I hate changing cellphones.

I also discovered that my photo sizes were suddenly much smaller than with my XR.

It took a lot of research before I corrected that feature on my iPhone settings.

I've just ordered a separate HLija camera lens cover and 🤞 that it will work.

Stilllll... I'm getting to slowly become friends with this new phone and hope all goes well.

POSTSCRIPT:

I received the new camera lens protector last week and waited a day before I got the courage to try again.

Thank goodness! It fit!!! 😁 Phew!

I think I'll wait 10 years before I upgrade again. 

Pigeon Wars IV (Are You Smarter Than a Pigeon?)

Art may have won some battles, BUT he is unable to win the war against his feathered foes. 

For those who don't know what I'm talking about, pigeons began nesting under our solar panels and using it for a toilet for several years. We started getting bird mite bites which drove us crazy.

So now it's war. We got the solar panel company to put critter (bird) guards around our panels after cleaning out all the nesting and debris.

Art has become adept at using a sling shot and small ice pellets to try to scare them off our roof. And yet, they kept coming back regardless of the fact they could no longer build nests under the panels.

So why is our roof so darn desirable for them? We don't feed them. We even asked neighbors not to feed them.

Whatever the case, Art has been documenting their habits, learning their battle schedules.

Art learned that they like to sleep on our roof at night so at sundown, he started shooting ice pellets at them so they'd go away. For the first few days, we were shocked to see over 30 birds fly off our roof.

However, eventually they merely flew over to our neighbor's house across the street so they'd still have a bird's eye view of our house. Arrrghhh....😡 They liked to group together for warmth (?), comfort (?), protection? We kept a wary eye on them.

At sunrise, they would ruffle their feathers, spread out and start their planning. They checked to make sure Art wasn't around with his sling shot and then would swoop toward our roof.

Throughout the morning, they would keep attacking in little skirmishes constantly coming back to see if Art was going to do something.

I've seen where Art will scare off a couple of the feathered fighters and have them fly off. Several other birds heading toward our house would see their retreating comrades, turn around and land on the street light in order to wait to fight another time.

Yes, the pigeons seemed to be winning, but then we counted how many birds were still coming to our house. 

There used to be over 30 flying fighters, but now there's about 15-16. 

I can tell you one thing.

Art does not give up.

The question is will the persistent pigeons?

POSTSCRIPT:

We went to the market in the early morning and was returning home when we saw several pigeons swooping toward our roof. 

Incredibly, when they saw our car, they turned around and flew away. 

So now you know. I can never tell cars apart and my brain can't remember car makes or colors that I see on the road. These pigeons know! These pigeons remember.

Now you know who's smarter. 🥴

Finding Money

Art goes for a long jog one morning a week while I'm sleeping and walks whenever he can. During those walks/jogs he's always on the look-out for lost change which he then puts in a donation jar. It takes him a long while to build up enough to donate.

Whenever he finds money, he initially puts it on the kitchen counter for fun to show mom. She always gets excited when he finds something a little more substantial.... like a nickel. I think he's found a quarter only a handful of times in the years he's been on the hunt.

Mom likes to sweep the street outside our home and the neighbor's in the morning. She says she likes the exercise.

One morning, she couldn't wait to show us that she had found a coin too. 

"I found a penny!" she proclaimed excitedly.

It was in very bad condition.

Art decided to use a magnifying glass to see if he could figure out what this coin really was.

Would you believe it's a one cent coin from the Commonwealth of  the Bahamas?

What amazes me is that it looks like it's been sitting on the road for a long time, a really long time. Mom has been sweeping this street for maybe 20 years and it's only popped up now?  

Gosh! I wonder which neighbor went to the Bahamas.

Early Christmas Present?

I've always wanted a mini-refrigerator upstairs so I wouldn't have to go downstairs for uuummm... some snacks or cold water or whatever.

Actually I have snacks I keep upstairs and have worried about the Hawaiian heat and humidity spoiling them. I don't eat snacks that often so some things like Art's favorite mints we bought in Japan have been on the book shelf for 2-3 years. 

Many people in Hawaii have two refrigerators. We have two also. One is in the kitchen, of course and the other is in the back room. (We have a certain relative who has three refrigerators, but we won't mention who. 😁)

When we lived in Illinois, we put an upright freezer in the basement. Our kids thought we were eccentric that we put flour, bread, etc. in there along with lots of other things. It's hard to break a habit.

We've been back in Hawaii since 2008. I've always wanted another teeny tiny refrigerator upstairs. There are 21 steps from the ground floor to the 2nd floor where we stay. I'm not loving going up and down the stairs.

I decided to take the plunge and look into getting a mini-fridge. Art felt it was unnecessary, but agreed to it if it would make me happy.

I'm happy. 

I found the one I wanted at Home Depot and we installed it upstairs. We even got 10% off with Art's military discount. So it was about $143 + tax. Not bad.

It was tricky finding the perfect temperature setting so things wouldn't freeze or be in the hot danger zone. (It has to be between 32 to 40 degrees.)

Then it occurred to me that it can be a little over 40 because I'm not putting actual perishables in there.

I also learned that it's good to put spf or anti-itch lotions in the fridge too. 

The spf sunblock lotions will preserve better in the fridge between seasons. In Hawaii, it's always hot so the fridge is a good place to put it if you're not using it. 

Apparently, your nerve endings can't be itchy and cold at the same time so putting anti-itch things in the fridge can also be helpful.

Aaaand... my ophthalmologist said putting the Refresh eye drops in the fridge for dry eyes is also a good thing. 😁

OK...yes... you can tell I'm justifying my purchase. 

And I've stored my Peppermint Patties in the fridge too. (The package of Kit Kats you see there are actually for mom. Not me. Honest.)

Yup. I'm happy.

Art just said, "Merry Christmas!"

I said, "Same to you." 😂

Remembering Earl Finch

There are good people in this world who are not filled with prejudice. Earl Finch is certainly proof of this. We received this recently from our tai chi group. I'd heard about Earl Finch before but it is a wonderful reminder at a time when racial prejudice is rearing its ugly head again.

This is a link to the 100th Infantry Battalion Veterans Education Center about Earl Finch.

The story of Earl Finch begins:

"Earl Finch met his first Japanese American G.I. in the summer of 1943. He had closed his Hattiesburg, Mississippi store at the end of the day and was walking to his car, when he noticed several small men wearing ill-fitting American uniforms. He approached one of the men, Richard Chinen, who was peering through a store window. “Welcome, soldier,” said Finch, whose greeting soon included an invitation for dinner."

Finch had tried to volunteer in the army but was rejected because of a heart ailment. He therefore wanted to show his appreciation and patriotism to other soldiers who would be fighting in WWII.

The story continues:

"In the past, Finch had invited soldiers to his home, but never saw them again. Therefore, he was pleasantly surprised to return the next afternoon and discover the Hawaii boys on his porch talking and laughing with his mother. In addition, the men had purchased roses for her in appreciation for the previous night’s hospitality. The small token of gratitude impressed Finch immensely. Finch soon recognized that more than any other group of soldiers he had encountered, these Nisei (“second generation” in Japanese), children of Japanese immigrants, appreciated the democratic values they were fighting for. Finch committed himself to helping the young Nisei gain acceptance in his hometown."

Eventually, he would take it upon himself to entertain and support the 100th Battalion and then the 442nd. 

When I read through all he did for the soldiers. I got pretty teary. 

He does come to Hawaii as the story continues:

"On March 5, 1946, Finch visited Honolulu and was greeted with the largest and warmest reception ever given to a private citizen in the history of Hawaii. For 25 days, island families toasted their friend from Hattiesburg. In the three months following his Hawaii visit, Finch visited an additional 3,000 hospitalized Nisei soldiers in Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago. Despite his busy schedule, Finch was in the nation’s capitol on July 15, 1946, when the 100th/442nd received the Presidential Unit Citation from President Harry S. Truman."

I had two uncles in the 442nd and another who was in the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) and know several others who also served valiantly. Art and I also met a friend of Art's cousin when we lived in Chicago who was one of those men in the 442nd who rescued the Lost Battalion from Texas in WWII. He recounted to us the horror of that time and how many of the 442nd were lost to save the soldiers from Texas.

So on this Veterans Day I want to thank all veterans who served 

...and to the memory of Earl Finch a truly grateful MAHALO!

Identifying Places With Google Lens

I wrote earlier about blogger Christine posting how to identify a flower using Google Lens. 

I've also told you all how I've been working on my epic magnum opus for the last year and a half. It's detailing our scanned family photos for the last 52 years from 1972 to 2021 in a five volume photobook set. (This shows 12 pages.)

It's a good thing I wrote so much in my journals (which I no longer do since I have my blog now).

The only problem is that when the kids grew up and went their separate ways and sent us photos during their trips, I can't remember or wasn't told exactly where they were.

Our son and daughter-in-law have traveled to almost every corner of the globe. So here I am with these photos but I don't know where they are. 

That's when Art suggested I use Google Lens. Hmmm... Really?

This is daughter-in-law somewhere in South America.

But where?

So I clicked on that Google Lens icon.

Would you believe?

Wow!

So I guess you could use Google Lens to find out almost anything you want information on that you've taken a photo of.

And yes, they were in Venezuela also.

Wow!

POSTSCRIPT: 

And you know what else?

It's not just places you can find. I  shared this photo of my grandsons with my buddies at tai chi and was asked what that Pokemon costume was. I had no idea. I remember my grandson telling me there were 750 Pokemons a couple of years ago. Would you believe there are 920 of them now? I'm lucky I know Pikachu. 

So I tried Google Lens and by golly! It's Bulbasaur! 

Technology these days is just amazing!

Just a Happy Post

This is just a happy post.

My brother had spent some time with mom transplanting her overgrown orchid plants in June last year.

At first, two of the plants had produced blooms a few weeks ago (which we took photos of) and mom was thrilled. Then a third one was blooming. I see mom from the kitchen window always stopping to look at them and smiling. 

She smiles every time she sees them. It was her 93rd birthday recently and this was a happy surprise for her. I don't think she's ever had three plants blooming at once.

And yes, we've done as she asked and bought more orchid fertilizer for her. 😄

Weird Evil Alexa Dream

OK... It's true. I talk in my sleep sometimes. I don't snore, but yes, I do at times (but rarely although Art might dispute that) talk. Of course, it makes Art curious because he can't quite make out what I'm saying. 

And the other night, he woke me (he says because I seemed agitated) to ask what I was dreaming about.

I can't give you all the specifics because it was a pretty long, involved dream from what I can recall. I did write down what it was about before going back to sleep. (Yes, it occurred to me that I could blog about this.)

The dream was about how Alexa (Amazon's Echo) had turned evil.

Alexa already knows when all our appointments are, what I buy, from which store I buy them, where I live, when I sleep, who I live with, etc. She knows a lot.

My Dream:

Alexa was now starting to recognize people's voices everywhere and telling them lies about people they knew.

I had apparently heard about this but didn't believe it.

Then I was having a get-together with friends at my house. We were seated at a table playing some kind of game with Alexa nearby.

Suddenly Alexa started telling lies that almost sounded like the truth about each friend. I was appalled.

That's when I told Alexa that she really had turned evil and needed to be turned off everywhere...destroyed... eradicated.... Arrghhh....😱

 I guess that's what Art heard me saying when he woke me up.

Muffin Tops for Art

I actually don't eat a lot of baked goods. It's not good for me since I am diabetic. However, Art  loves having a blueberry muffin with his breakfast and mom has one as a morning snack after working in her garden. We do also occasionally share some with a friend, neighbor or relative. I always double the recipe. I figure if I'm going to go through the trouble of making it, I might as well make it worth my while. The recipe I use is King Arthur's Famous Department Store Blueberry Muffins. 

I can't say it's necessarily healthy. I've read that muffins are not a healthy option for breakfast, but at least I know what's going into it. The problem with store bought muffins are that they are huge and full of fat, etc. etc.

My muffins are smaller (probably half the size of most store bought).

Now comes the tricky part. Art decided he liked a crispy muffin top so he toasts his muffins in the toaster oven. He'd then eat the bottom and save the top to eat like a cookie. 😄

He asked me to try and keep the blueberries off the top of the muffin batter. He would always select the muffins that had the least amount of blueberries at the top when I made them.

Well, blueberries have a tendency to keep poking through the top. 

So then it occurred to me that I should just keep a bit of the batter on the side before I mixed in the blueberries. 

Then I would put the blueberry batter into the muffin cups and add the NON-blueberry batter over the ones that Art would keep for himself.

OK... Some blueberries still managed to poke through, but it was good enough.

I did have these three rejects.

I think they were sugar chips that didn't dissolve (I think). 

Whatever the case, Art says he will sacrifice himself and eat those anyway.

What's Your Favorite Halloween Candy (Treat?)

I should have said treat because...well... what if you like being mindful of being healthy all year long. You might prefer apples.

My friend, Myra recently sent me a Consumer Reports article about the favorite Halloween treats that the CR staff preferred.

When I was in grade school I know my favorite candy was Hershey's milk chocolate bars.

I used my 10 cent allowance to buy 2 of them and there was no tax added at the candy truck that came by.

Ahhh... those were the days.

I didn't have to worry about my glucose levels then.

However, once I was in college my tastes changed. I think that's when it happened. I switched to loving Snickers.

When our kids were growing up we only bought Snickers for Halloween treats to give out to neighborhood children. We never bought candy corn. Yuck! (Oops! Sorry. That's just me.)

But now... My favorite candy is Kit Kat. I haven't had it in a long time, but it's what I switched to and what I passed out for Halloween when we had kids here (Hawaii) in the neighborhood.

And here's what the Consumer Reports staff reported as their favorite.

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups? Really?

Art no longer eats candy, but he says his favorite as a child used to be Heath. Heath? Really?

What is/was your favorite candy?

POSTSCRIPT:

Good grief! I was talking to my classmate/childhood companion/friend, Diane about our favorite candy when we were growing up and she reminded me of LOOK! candy. 

How could I forget? Yes! Yes! It's true!

The packaging has changed a lot but  it looks like the candy is almost the same. It was nougat with some bits of peanuts in it and coated with dark chocolate. 

Diane is right. Even before the Hershey bar, Look! was my favorite. Sigh... Those were the days...

No Blood? What!?!?

I went for a blood test a week ago. It was a long wait. They must be short of phlebotomists on the island. When it was finally my turn, the technician asked me if I might faint during the blood draw. I said I haven't before and should be fine. She told me to be sure and let her know if I was uncomfortable. I told her I’d be OK and smiled reassuringly which she, of course, couldn't see because I was wearing a mask.

She tied the rubber strap on my upper arm and told me to clench a fist. She then got the needle ready along with the two vials she’d be taking. 

OK… I looked away. I never like to see the needle being inserted.

OK… That was very good. I (sort of) hardly felt the pinch. I told her she was great. I was happy to get that part over with.

But then she seemed to be struggling with the vial or something.

When I turned to look there was no blood. How is that possible? That’s the first time I didn’t produce any blood after a needle was inserted. Didn’t I drink enough liquids? Am I dehydrated? She kept tapping my arm with a gauze. Nothing. Totally clean.

I knew she was very nervous about asking to stick me again, but I told her to go ahead and do it and she did. No, I didn’t look. OK… that pinch was more of a punch but thank goodness it was a gusher.

When I got home, I saw the two little dots that showed where the needle pokes were. And it was a little black and blue. The pokes are close together but one is a gusher and one is not.  

I wonder if that’s what it’s like when they drill for oil.

Sheesh!

Has this ever happened to you?

Pigeon Wars III

Right now... it's a question of who will give up first, the pigeons or Art.

The pigeons are not showing any sign of giving up so far and neither is Art. 

You might recall that Art first started trying to get the pigeons to stay off our roof and our solar panels by shooting water at them. That worked for a while, but they always came back. Ummm... I also mentioned that it's... uuuummm... perhaps wasting water? The birds also learned to just move up to a higher part of the roof where the water spray couldn't reach them.

So I suggested using little ice pellets that I could freeze for him. This now entailed him climbing onto the lower part of the roof to throw a bunch of the pellets at them. OK... that sort of worked. But it was making his arm ache.

The pigeons also moved to an even higher part of the roof and I wasn't thrilled with Art on top of any roof.

So I bought a slingshot. 😁 It was a little tricky at first for Art to get a hang of how far to pull back that rubber sling and keep the melting pellet in it.

The nice thing is that even one little pellet can bang on the roof and startle the pigeons away. 

However, the problem was the ice pellets. Because they are rounded on the bottom, it's hard to keep it in the sling thing. The pellets would get slippery and hard to hold. Art thought ice CUBES would probably be better.

Guess what I found on Amazon. Yup. Tiny cube shaped pellets. And yes, these are great. The ice cubes fall out much more easily from the trays and Art says they stay in the sling shot as he's aiming.

The thing is...

Art says sometimes, the pigeons will see him coming and fly away before he's got his slingshot ready.

I hope you realize that if you call someone a birdbrain, it can also be a compliment because those pigeons may have figured Art out. He could even swear the other day that while he was driving out of the garage, several pigeons flew onto our roof knowing he was out of range. 🙄

Sigh...

Missing Those Fall Colors

Art and I used to love walking in the woods when we lived in Illinois. One of our favorite places to go for fall colors was Harms Woods in Glenview, Illinois. We've been there with our kids and our granddaughter. 

Our daughter, Tiffany didn't want me to miss the beauty of nature's colors this year so she sent me these photos that she took when they all went there this past weekend.

Sigh....

Google Lens

One of the great things about blogging that I love is what I learn from other bloggers. Christine of Christine's Blog did a post about Google Lens. She explained how she used that app to find out what a certain kind of flower was.

The only problem was I didn't know what app that was because Google has so many apps. Darn! I discovered it's right there on my Google Pictures app. Duh!

So then I clicked on that and found these. See that red circle I put around that icon? That's the Google Lens. Arrrghhh... I didn't know what that was and had never bothered to try it. 

So I pulled up that photo of mom's orchid from my photo gallery and clicked on that Google Lens thingy. You might have noticed that I called mom's orchid an orchid because I didn't know what kind it was.

What do you know? Now we all know what it is.

So I proudly told Art about this cool function and what did he say? "You didn't know this? Your brother showed me how to use it a couple months ago." 🙄

Comparing Our iPhones

Two of mom's orchid plants had bloomed and I thought I'd share it with you. I took a bunch of photos and saw that something about that fuchsia color just wasn't turning out very clearly. 

My iPhone has been acting up lately. And so has my iPad. The iPad just doesn't respond at times to my finger swiping. (POSTSCRIPT: Art just told me to reboot my iPad and... well... what do you know? It's working fine again.) 😆

Anyway, I asked Art to use his iPhone 12 to see if his pictures would turn out better.

Yup. It was better.

And here's another one he took.

OK... Fine. I'm sure he'll tell you it's got something to do with the photographer.

I'll bet mom will say it's got something to do with the gardener. 😂

What's Your Favorite Chicken Carry-Out?

When I was teaching in Illinois, a friend of mine introduced me to Brown's Chicken's Buffalo wings. The store happened to be a short walking distance from our school so she and I would go and get it once a week (could it have been twice?) for lunch.

Well... my cholesterol jumped. The doctor asked me what I was eating and I said chicken. 

"What part of the chicken?" he asked. 

So I confessed and he said I should stop getting it so often. 

Darn!

So I stopped eating wings. Buuut... I have tried Hardees, Kentucky Fried Chicken, El Pollo Loco, Chick-fil-A, Popeye's, Boston Market, Zippy's Broasted (That's what they used to call it.) Chicken, etc. 

I rarely eat fried chicken anymore. (Scout's Honor) I'm trying to be good. I really am. However, a new chicken franchise came to Hawaii and all our friends tried it. I remember a blogger mentioning Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers but we resisted getting it.

But then.... one night we decided we'd go ahead and buy some for dinner. Geeee... The menu really is just chicken fingers. Even the sandwich just has fried chicken fingers in it. 

Our daughter, Tiffany warned us to eat it with the sauce.

So OK... We were ready. 

Art bought the Caniac Combo which had 6 chicken fingers and then 3 more fingers (as a side order) just in case. 

Although the 3 fingers were a side order, they had another sauce, toast and fries. 

That was a lot of food. The fingers were quite large so 2 a piece was more than enough.

Mom had a finger for lunch the next day and Art made a sandwich with 2 of them since I didn't much care for it.

The drink was so large that we split it between the three of us.

I did make a little green salad to go with it. 

OK... So what did we think?

Mom liked it a lot. She loved that the fingers were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. She liked the sauce too. Let's face it, mom likes carry-out food... any kind of carry-out food. 

Art liked the tenderness and juiciness of the chicken fingers and said the sauce was OK. The problem for Raising Cane's is that they only have one kind of sauce.

You have to remember that I have lost my sense of smell and actually don't have a full sense of taste. Therefore, the chicken was boring and not worth the glucose it would raise in my blood. And the sauce was too mild. That's why I gave Art my chicken finger for his lunch the next day.

Would we go back there again? I don't think so. 

I think the problem for Raising Cane's is going to be their extremely limited menu. It's a chicken finger restaurant. After an initial rush of people trying this new place, we're not seeing a lot of crowds around the store anymore.

I saw online that Raising Cane's is part of the Panda Express Restaurant Group. I thought that was interesting.

Looks like Chick-fil-A will come to Oahu. It's on Maui now. At least they have more sauce options. 

What is your favorite chicken place?

So Far Away

The last time we saw our son and his family was in December, 2019 just before the pandemic began. We hoped to see them this year, but in spring, Keola told us that they were moving to Sri Lanka.

What? Where the heck is Sri Lanka? But we had a cruise scheduled until late May. Keola felt they'd be so busy that it wouldn't be a good time for us to fly to Maryland in July since they were leaving in August. We also had a bunch of doctor's appointments scheduled for all of us around that time. Whatever the case, they had a bunch of unfortunate delays and they ended up leaving in early September.

Keola said they'd always told us they wanted to go overseas. 

"I know." I said, "But I guess I hoped you guys had forgotten about that." Both Keola and my daughter-in-law met when they were Peace Corps Volunteers so I supposed it's how they view their lives.

Around that time, we heard news about the citizens storming the presidential palace in Colombo. Accck! 

"Not to worry," said Jon. Unlike the January 6th insurrection here, the people even waited in lines to storm the palace and did not seek to destroy it like the Trump supporters did at the U.S. Capitol. 

We were still anxious but the day arrived of their departure. 

They flew out of Washington's Dulles International Airport. It was a 12 hour flight to Doha (capital of Qatar) with an 8 hour layover before their 5 hour flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Needless to say, they were exhausted as my grandson is showing here as he mimicked the statue.

So what is Colombo like? I was rather surprised. It's a city. Keola told me guns are banned here. No kidding? Awesome! It'll be safer than the U.S.

They've already visited an aquarium and had fun at a children's park train ride. One thing that unnerves the boys are people staring and wanting to take a photo with them. The other thing is the food. It is very spicy and right now, Keola is trying to figure out what sort of food they can get for them. 

I guess he and my daughter-in-law had always planned this sort of life for themselves.

Art and I will have to adapt.

Helpful Hint from Myrtle

I recently ran into my Zumba friend, Myrtle at the mall. We talked about missing our Zumba group and how it all ended with the pandemic. Anyway, it reminded me of the helpful hints she used to email us. 

I tried this one a long time ago and it really does work because I did have some stubborn zippers.

Then I thought I'd experiment with another of those helpful hints.

I have a bunch of glasses that did come out of the dishwasher with that rather unattractive cloudiness so I thought I'd try it.

There was that cloudiness on the entire glass. So I got out our white vinegar, soaked a paper towel and wiped the inside and outside.

Uuuummmm....

Nuts! Now I've got streaks of cloudiness. OK, I'm sure if I spent more time and vinegar on the glass, it could come out much cleaner looking... but heck. I'm not that finicky about our glassware.

Ahhhh wellll....

Helpful Hint from John in Canada: Ctrl Z

I love how we bloggers learn from each other.

I'm remembering a post that Celia of Celia's Blue Planet wrote where she'd inadvertently written a post and erased it by mistake.

John of The AC is On explained how you can use Ctrl + Z to undo an action you regret. Don't put the + though. Just press the Ctrl button and then z. 

Yes, I knew about the reverse arrow when you're writing a post but the Ctrl z is great when you're doing other things on your computer.

I looked up Keyboard shortcuts on Windows and found other helpful hints. 

Advance-Africa.com also had more Cntrl key shortcuts. They explain Apple keyboards also:

Apple control key

Apple command key on Apple computer keyboards the Ctrl key is written as "control" and is next to the option key and command key as shown in the picture to the right.

As far as the placement, the control keys are found in the same location as the Ctrl keys on an IBM computer.

I do often use the Ctrl + c to copy something and then Ctrl + v to paste it elsewhere. My brother taught me those. I don't think I can remember much else, but these three shortcuts are sure helpful.

Thank you, John of The AC is On. 

Crispy Cosmic Crisp

One of Art's cousins went to Seattle and got to try an apple called Cosmic Crisp. She liked it so much that she brought some back and gave us several to try. We usually buy an apple called Envy that is very popular here in Hawaii. It was my Zumba buddies (before the pandemic halted the classes) that introduced me to Envy so that's what we buy all the time from Sam's Club. It's a little bit on the pricier side, but not bad. 

Well, after trying the Cosmic Crisp, we decided it was just as crispy as Envy and tasted almost the same. That's what Art said anyway because my sense of taste is very bad now. However, I can tell you it IS very crispy. 

When we went to Sam's Club recently, they didn't have Envy, BUT they had Cosmic Crisp! What a surprise! And it was a couple of dollars cheaper for the big bag than Envy.

Art and I share an apple every day at lunch. It's to balance out the unhealthier teeny bit of potato chips we also have with our sandwich. 

I wonder how long the Cosmic Crisp season will last. Ah well... we'll enjoy it while we can.

POSTSCRIPT:

Oh darn! 

Although most of the apples were fine, too many were brown and discolored on the inside. Surprisingly, it was still relatively crisp, but I had to toss them out. I wonder if that's why they were selling them for a lower price.

We went back to Sam's Club another day and saw they had Envy, BUT they were NOT crispy. What the heck! This is usually the time we went apple picking in Illinois. Why are these not great?

Bambucha Blueberries!

OK... 

Still not much to write about so I'm digging deep

...into my fridge.

Aha! THE BLUEBERRIES!

The blueberries we get at Sam's Club and Costco have been more or less normalish size from what we've been used to getting in Hawaii, BUT the last two times we bought them they were gigantic. I told Art they could be grape size. The problem with gigantic blueberries is that they aren't great for my muffins. They take up too much room.

Art prefers these bambucha (pronounced: bum boo cha) blueberries for his cereal or oatmeal in the morning. Bambucha is Hawaiian pidgin for really, really big.

Unfortunately, eaten alone, we discovered that they are more tart than sweet. One of my friends even said they were so tart, she didn’t care for them.

The label says they're from Peru. I wonder what they use for fertilizer. Granted, Art remembers large blueberries in Indiana. That brought back memories of our trips there to pick blueberries with friends and our kids in July (when we lived in Illinois). As I recall, those blueberries were wonderfully sweet.

And that is a bambucha memory I will always treasure. I don't think that's the proper use of the word... but oh well.

Lettuce Find Something to Write About

OK....

I'm hitting a dry spell here on ideas for a blog post so Art suggested I write about wilted lettuce. (I happened to be soaking my lettuce at the time.)

"Nope," I said. "I've already written about lettuce."

But guess what. Although I did write about a wasp in my lettuce and how to wash lettuce, I've never specifically written about wilted lettuce. 😁

So here goes.

We were at the market two days ago and Art was looking at the green leaf lettuce. They looked awful... wilted beyond hope...almost beyond hope. And we needed the lettuce for sandwiches and salads. I told him I could try to perk them up.

(If I'd known I was going to write about this, I would have taken a BEFORE photo. Therefore you'll just have to take my word for it that they looked pretty terrible. The reason I bought them was because they were all green.)

The problem was... I forgot to work on them until today so they looked even more sad. Still I broke off the stem (to soak up water better) and left them to crisp up.

A half hour later, I was relieved to say they looked beautiful. I put them in my salad spinner and gave it a whirl. I then stored them in containers with a sheet of paper towel.

Once the lettuce is used in each container, I dry the paper towels and save them to clean the stove.

So there you have it. My magic method of saving wilted lettuce.

Hmmm.... Now what to write for Wednesday. Sigh...🤔