Another Banana Twin

Last year, I posted a photo of a twin banana we found in the hand of apple bananas that we'd bought. We like apple bananas better than Cavendish because they don't all ripen faster than you can eat them.

We thought this pair of twin bananas was pretty cool.

Well, believe it or not, we found another one. But this time the twin bananas did not have its own peel separating them. They were truly stuck together.

OK... so it's not a billion dollar lottery ticket, but we thought it was pretty neat.

Two Guys on a Safari

When Art mentioned going on a safari in Tanzania, I really wasn't interested. It's been a very busy traveling year. I'm willing to go on one distant travel a year. This year, we went to the British Isles in April. That was wonderful! But then, we had another trip in June to celebrate our 50th anniversary in Tokyo with the kids and grandkids. I thought that was a LOT of travel. I thought it was ENOUGH travel for one year.

But then Art had mentioned earlier that he and our good friend, Dave were planning to go on a Tanzanian safari in August too. It was a trip that had been postponed for 3 years  because of the pandemic. He wondered if I'd like to go along. Dave's wife, Diane is my classmate and childhood friend. She and I said, "No way." I was tired. Diane is not for long, long, long plane rides.

Keola joined the Peace Corps in 2001. He was assigned to Mali where he valued all the experiences he had there. In February, 2002, Art had retired and decided to visit Keola and explore some of Africa. I was still teaching at the time.

Father and son had a fabulous time climbing to the peak of Kilimanjaro, joining a safari in Tanzania and trekking through Kenya with rather rustic accommodations.

So now...here was an opportunity to visit the area again with some nice upgrades.

Diane and I were happy that Art and Dave would be able to have this adventure together.

They wanted to see the wildebeest migration crossing over rivers and grassy plains. They also wanted to see lions and warthogs and elephants, oh my! Dave is a professional photographer and looked forward to taking a lot of photos. (I will write about some of their adventures at a later date. Art is still trying to organize his photos and creating a photobook to document what they experienced.)

Hoooowever... at their first stop, they were given a room with one bed.

When they notified their safari leader, the beds were separated.

The following day, the same thing happened.

When it happened again on the 3rd day, they began to suspect that it was assumed they were a couple. 😂

Diane and I laughed about this when they texted us from Tanzania about their chagrin.

Well... I'm glad the guys had a great time. And I wondered if the safari folks would make the same assumption if two women were traveling together.

Uuumm... And do you know what Art just told me a couple of days ago? He said Antarctica was on his bucket list and wouldn't I like to go because Dave was interested. I don't think Diane likes the cold. Hmmm... I do have a down coat I can loan her. 😁

Goodbye Again

Our son-in-law, Ed returned from his job related travel for our last three days in Chicago. It was wonderful to be able to spend even this short time with him.

I always tell him he's my favorite techie. "Only your favorite techie?" he laughed.

I also tell him he's my favorite son-in-law. OK, it's true he's my only son-in-law. But the important thing is he's my favorite. 😄

I told him about the problems I was having receiving calls from Tripler Hospital that were going straight to voice mail. Arrghhh... I'd missed some important calls. 

He fixed it. I can't remember what he did but he somehow did it.

Then I told him that my Line app had stopped giving me notifications when someone texts me.

I'd looked online for solutions and even mirrored all the settings from Art's phone and still, my iPhone refused to give me any notifications.

Yup. He fixed that too. I don't know how. But he did. 

He and Tif then said we needed to learn how to use the Uber app so he set that up on my iPhone for our trip to the airport.

It really wasn't very hard once he explained it. I don't know when we'd use it again, but it sure is nice to have this option. Our Uber driver came right on time and off we went. 

It was sad to once again look out the car window and wave goodbye to our daughter and son-in-law. KC was already at school.

On the way to O'Hare, the Uber website gave a status report on my iphone telling me the time we'd arrive at the airport.

And yes, I did do the online check-in again. The bag drop shortcut was a lot more convenient than the one in Honolulu.

And before you knew it, we were on the United flight which incredibly left on time.

We got to watch Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny which was fun.

And wonder of wonders, we arrived in Hawaii on time too. 

Our luggage was one of the first to come out and my brother came to pick us up and bring us home.

This was the shortest trip we've ever taken to Chicago but just about the smoothest we've ever had.

Fingers crossed it will be the same when we return next year.

And so we're back and here I am again.

Fall Colors At Last

Living in Hawaii, we haven't been able to enjoy fall colors unless we travel to the mainland, Asia or Europe.

So here we were in Illinois in October, but the colors weren't quite at its peak. It was two days before we were to leave and we'd been getting mostly cloudy, drizzly weather.

But then suddenly... the sun came out. 

"Let's go to the woods," said Tif. "This is probably going to be your last chance to get a good day even though there might not be much color yet."

And so off we went. The reds weren't really on display yet, but it was still beautiful.

I loved the comfortably cool weather knowing that we would be returning to hot and humid in a couple of days.

We were warned by friends in Hawaii to expect it upon our return. 

And then suddenly we heard what sounded like thundering hooves. We looked to the left and saw the biggest deer with giant antlers that I've ever seen in the wild go thundering along the riverbank. That was quite a sight. 

It was a truly wonderful day even though Tif texted a week later that we missed the reds by just a week. 

Ahhh well... we'll be back. 

Too Good to Go?

The day after we arrived in Chicago, our daughter, Tiffany said she needed to go out to get her bag of unknown pastry goodies from the Great Harvest Bread Company. She explained that the bakery would give out assorted day-old bread or pastries for just $6.00 to prevent food waste.

I thought that was a really fun idea. Tif liked the mystery of never knowing for sure what you'd get and yes, you sure can't beat the price.

Off she went and returned with this assortment of interesting items.

We tasted the Monkey Bread which reminded us of their Apple Scrapple which we used to love when the kids were growing up.

I asked if they sold these bags every day and she said there was an app called Too Good to Go that would post when things would be available.

Well....

I wondered if Hawaii had a Great Harvest Bread Co. and WOW! We do have one in Kahala and one in Kailua.

However their menus are very different. There's no Monkey Bread or Apple Scrapple in Hawaii.

Ah well...

We'll wait until we're back in Chicago again.

Then again, I'll bet Art would like to try that kulolo muffin.

A Million Roses? Seriously?!?

I noticed this rather eye-catching floral display on my daughter's coffee table but it wasn't until much later that I asked how she'd gotten it. Tif told us that Ed had bought it last September to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary. 

Wow! 20 Years already!

 I remarked that they looked really real.

"They are," said Tif. "It's called a Million Roses."

I touched it and yes, it did feel real. But how is that possible?

I looked it up and yes, I guess it's true. It's... uuummm... pricey, but perhaps my son-in-law was able to find a discounted price. 

Whatever the case, I do love knowing how sweet, thoughtful and generous he is.

POSTSCRIPT:

I just looked up how long a Million Roses last. They say it will keep for up to 3 years. It’s not forever.

A Time of Pride and Happiness

Although our sudden trip to Chicago was for a very sad reason, it also just happened to coincide with a celebration. Our granddaughter, KC belongs to a dance studio. She is also part of a high school dance group and was asked to audition for a special fall show written, performed, choreographed by students with a teacher advisor. We'd never been to one of these performances.

They told me that all 7 shows were completely sold out. Tiffany put out a call to her friend who she knew had purchased several tickets and asked if they would be willing to sacrifice a couple of their tickets so we'd be able to see it in the week we'd be there.

It's been almost 4 years since we'd been back to Chicago. We hadn't seen any of KC's performances except on video links that Tif emailed us of websites that showed all the dance competitions.

I was therefore thrilled that we'd be able to see an actual performance in person. Art suggested that I make a candy lei for KC since we certainly couldn't bring a flower lei with us. (Yes, I added a little cash. I wonder which KC liked more.😂)

We had such a short time to pack for this trip that I had to make the candy-money lei in Chicago the day before the performance.

KC was worried that we might be shocked at the more revealing costumes they would be wearing as well as the topics the skits would be covering.

Puh..leease... 

We're much more broad minded than that.

Indeed, the costumes were a bit tighter and slightly more revealing than 4 years ago, but it was all OK for their older age group. 

There were skits about vaping, killer blackbirds?, a little sex, AI, human-like androids, etc.

I can't remember it all because I was focused on the 6 dance sequences that KC was in.

And was she absolutely awesome and the best dancer there? Definitely! And am I biased? Of course! I'm her grandma, for goodness sakes!

However, later... Tif asked me if I caught all the references to people like the Kardashians, etc. Really? Oops! Missed it! 

Still.... It was all wonderful and a ton of fun. KC is attending the same high school her uncle and mom attended so it was nostalgic for us to be back there again.

And yes, we were filled with pride and happiness.

Saying Goodbye

The day after flying in from Hawaii and arriving in Chicago, we went to visit Peggy's family. We were able to spend time with her husband and two sons. We talked about her last days and the gift she was to everybody in her life. We talked about the times our families spent together since the kids were very little.

One of her sons went into her bedroom and brought out a framed photo of all of us together when they came for Tiffany and Ed's wedding so many years ago.

Peggy's funeral a couple of days later was very small. It was mostly family and the few friends they notified.

There was a slideshow being played of her life, many I recognized as photos we'd taken. 

When we entered the funeral home, there were two women who were watching the slide show. When they turned around and saw us, they walked over quickly and identified themselves.

Oh my gosh! Ann was a neighbor from perhaps almost 40 years ago. She'd left our village and moved to Florida with a new husband. Diane reminded me that she was the mother of our son, Keola's best pre-school buddy. 

Uuuummm... Seeing as we were the only Asians there, I imagine we were easy to pick out. 

I asked Diane what her son was doing now since our son was living overseas with his family. She told me her son had passed away 6 years ago. 

I could not believe it.

So young.

This is a photo of the two of them from the first of their pre-school days together.

I felt her loss as Diane tried to hold back tears. I was in shock.

We then spent time with Peggy's husband and three sons. After more hugs and a sad farewell, we returned home.

It was a sad, nostalgic, loving time and I was glad Art had made the decision to fly to Illinois so I could say good-bye. 

Backing Up Your Blog

It's always been a worry that my blog will suddenly disappear into the cyber nether-regions. I've written 4,010 blog posts since 2008 and that's 15 years where I've recorded everything I could possibly remember. 

I even tried copying what I write here on Blogspot to Wordpress but that eventually got to be too much of a chore.

So I looked up how I could back up my blog.

You are supposed to go to Settings and under Manage Blog, click Back up content.

I did it and got this wave thing which I saved to my computer. I hope this is how you're supposed to do it. But the thing is, it's only 187 MB.

Will that really work? I sure hope so.

Happy Halloween Everybody!

Unlike in Illinois, we haven't had many trick-or-treaters in Hawaii. I don't see a lot of homes decorated for Halloween here either. Then again, I know other neighborhoods in Hawaii do take Halloween more seriously and it's fun to see what sort of decorations they put up.

I've seen a lot of  pretty amazing costumes for sale at Sam's Club or Costco. I know my grandchildren have been dressed up in some pretty awesome costumes too. It's so much easier now to just go out and buy a ready made costume.

However, when our children were growing up, many of the kids (or parents) made their own.  Tiffany and Keola started out as rice bags. Yup. Nobody knew what they were supposed to be, but it didn't matter. Tif wore the rice bag first. No, we didn't eat that much rice. I think they came from Art's family restaurant.

And Keola was next.

He didn't care. The treat was the most important thing.

When they got a little older, they had their own ideas so the rice bag was put into retirement.

What were your kids' favorite costumes?

POSTSCRIPT 1:

I wrote earlier that I don't see many homes being decorated for Halloween here in Hawaii. Well... a friend of mine just texted me this photo from her neighborhood. OK... I'm impressed.

POSTSCRIPT 2:

Correction: My brother tells me that when we were growing up on the sugar plantation camp, my parents did buy 50 lb bags of rice. 

Teal Pumpkin Project

Have you heard of the Teal Pumpkin Project?

I noticed this blue pumpkin in front of Tif and Ed's fireplace and asked her about it.

Our town was known for trying to be inclusive and understanding. I guess that's why our kids liked it so much.

Apparently, you can leave a teal colored pumpkin out on our front stoop so children with allergies would know they could stop by for some non-food toy or fun thing.

I asked Tif if any child did stop by for that sort of safe treat but she said she didn't have anyone ask for it last year. Our little neighborhood was known for being a safe place. There were parents at Halloween who would stop by at the entrance of our little "village" and drop off their children knowing they'd be safe. 

We did love our neighborhood back then. It was close knit and you felt your kids would be safe to run around without your watching them every second because so many neighbors would keep an eye out for each other's children. 

I wonder what it's like now.

POSTSCRIPT:

A friend just told me that there's also another meaning for a child who is carrying a BLUE pumpkin. The blue pumpkin would signify that the child has an autism spectrum disorder. It would alert people to show some kindness and understanding for a child who might not be able to say, "Trick or Treat" or behave as other children. 

Acorns and Pine Cones

We bought our Illinois home (built in 1950) in1975. Our daughter and husband then bought that home in 2006 when we moved to Hawaii and we bought my mother's home in Hawaii after we renovated it. Tiffany wanted to move back to her childhood home because she'd always loved the neighborhood and had friends here.

Art and I were happy that we'd now have a familiar place to go back to for our visits. This is all just a prelude to this post about our trees. 

Art LOVES trees. That's why he's not happy that we don't have many tall trees in our neighborhood in Hawaii.

When the kids were in grade school. I think Keola might have been in 4th grade. Maybe. The school had passed out little pine trees for Arbor Day. This seedling was very little. It must have been about 9 inches tall. We planted it together in the little area between our house and the neighbor's. I was very dubious that it would grow much. I thought it would get trampled by raccoons or skunks or whatever.

Well... I guess it survived. On several visits since we noticed it had grown a bit.

But what a surprise when we went back this time! And the most amazing thing we saw? Two pine cones!!!

Tif told us that the swamp oak tree had also produced acorns for the first time this year. What is it about 2023?

She sent this photo of the acorns that had fallen on the ground.

She also sent this photo the week before we came to show all the acorns on the tree. There were a few left on the tree when we got there, but the army of squirrels from all around town had raided just about everything that could be gathered.

I guess 2023 is the year of the nuts, acorns and pine cones. We did see other neighbors' trees absolutely loaded with chestnuts and all kinds of other nuts. I did read that 75-200 years is the prime time for the swamp oak to produce acorns. So... I guess this is about right.

What has it been like in your neighborhood? Do you have a lot of large trees?

Using Online Check-In for the First Time

We've never done the online check-in for United Airlines. Something about doing it from my cellphone kind of spooked me. There was comfort in doing it the old way from the kiosk and so on and so forth and getting a hard copy paper ticket.

But this time, when the United app sent a message that I should do the online check-in, I held my breath and tried it. If my kids were here, they would have held my hand through it but I had to take the risk on my own. So I did it.

Gosh.... It was easy.

The tricky part was finding the "Bag Drop Shortcut" which was a bit of a walk but there were helpers who pointed the way there.

The cheerful attendant took our bags, labeled them and sent them on their way.

We left at 5:15 in the afternoon.

This was supposed to be a red-eye flight, but I can NEVER sleep. The flight was totally FULL.

And then... there it was below us. 

Chicago.

It was 6:15 in the morning. The flight was ON TIME! How amazing is that?

We had not been to Chicago since February of 2020! 

Can it really be that we hadn't been back in almost 4 years? 

It was a nostalgic, weird sort of feeling to be walking again through the familiar corridors of O'Hare Airport.

We saw that the longest lines were at McDonalds and Starbucks.

Our daughter, Tiffany came to pick us up before going to work. She had the guestroom ready for us along with toiletries, towels, extra blankets and even breakfast food. (Extra blankets? It was sweltering in Hawaii!)

Our granddaughter was off to high school and then an hour later, our son-in-law was off to O'Hare for his week long job in another state. Tif told us we'd come at a crazy time for all of them.

Once everyone was gone, the travel exhaustion hit us. We fell asleep for about two hours and then spent the time unpacking and etc.

This was going to be a very short trip because we can't leave mom alone for long. My brother comes to stay with her, but I feel bad having to rely on him to stay at our house for any long period. 

Tiffany returned from work a little early and she prepared chicken shawarma for dinner. It was wonderful! 

KC then left for her dance rehearsals and we spent the evening with Tif catching up and just talking and talking until around 10:00 at night when we welcomed KC home. (It was 5:00 PM in Hawaii.)

And then we crashed...totally exhausted. Our circadian rhythm would need several days to adjust itself. 

Sad and Happy Hiatus

I'm afraid I'm taking another two week hiatus. 

We're leaving for Chicago to attend Peggy's funeral. Her husband is expecting us and I was touched that her son posted the photo of the time they came for Tiffany's wedding and sat with us. My brother is dropping everything to come and stay with mom. Thank goodness for awesome brothers and sister-in-laws!

This is a bit stressful because I usually need 2 weeks to think, create lists and pack before a trip. 4 days was hard. Luckily, Tif said, "You're coming to Chicago. If you forget something you can certainly get it here." She then sent all the Fall/Winter clothing we have stored in their attic. 

Incredibly, we are coincidentally going to be there for my granddaughter's special high school performance. We can hardly believe the timing of it. We've only been able to see her dance in videos since COVID started. The tickets were all sold out so my daughter asked a good friend if she'd be willing to let us have one of her tickets so we could see KC on stage. I told Tif we didn't want to take away her opportunity to see KC dance. She chuckled and said she and her friend had actually bought tickets for two shows.

So it will be a mixture of tremendous sadness and happy pride.

Tif has warned us that the costumes will not be the modest, pretty outfits we've seen so far in videos. The girls are older now and it will be more revealing. 😮

"Uhhhhhmmm..." said KC. "You might not quite understand the dialog too."  

I guess this is an artistic performance incorporating acting, dance, etc. I suppose I'll find out more when I get there.  

Why do I suddenly feel a bit older? 

Well, now I'm curious. 

Always in My Heart

I've been dreading the time when I would write this post...

When we first moved into the Chicagoland suburb, I was a tad bit nervous. Our small area of about 100 homes had only one other Asian family for a long time. When we bought the home, we didn't know what the neighbors would be like. Coming from Hawaii and a sugar plantation camp where everybody was some Asian mixture, learning that the community we were moving into was almost all white was.... well...a spooky shock. I'd heard about racial prejudice on the mainland. (Art had spent quite a bit of time going to school in the Midwest and being stationed on the East coast when he was serving in the Air Force so he was used to it.)

There were two other families that were moving into the community that same year.

Peggy moved in with her family two doors down from us. I can't remember who called who on the phone that first time. However, Peggy and I talked and talked. I remember looking out the window and seeing the sun set and we were still talking.

A couple of years later, her daughter and my son were born 8 days apart. Peggy encouraged me to learn to drive so we could carpool together. She even took me to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get my license.

We went to lots and lots of garage and house sales together just for the fun of it and dragged all our kids with us.

We told each other everything that was going on in our minds and hearts. We were "Aunties" to each other's children just like in Hawaii.

When my son broke his arm on the school playground, she insisted on us corralling all our kids into her station wagon and driving us the long distance to the Great Lakes Naval Hospital. She didn't want me driving. It was a shock when X-rays showed how bad the break was, so she took Tiffany home with her while I stayed with Keola late into the night for the surgery. Art was in D.C. at a meeting at the time.

Life went on. I went back to work teaching first graders and she moved away with her family for her husband's new job. But we always kept in touch.

We were able to visit through all their moves. 

When our daughter, Tiffany got married, Peggy and her husband drove all the way to Chicago from Ohio to attend the wedding.

I wish they could have come to Hawaii too after we moved here.

Peggy gave me this wall hanging to go with the others she's given me through the years. 

Peggy has had health issues throughout the years but she never let them restrict or get her feeling down. She loved everyone unconditionally and was loved in return. Her family knew what a treasure they had for their wife and mother. 

The years flew by, but we made it a point to get together whenever we could, along with our husbands and kids.

I knew three years ago just before COVID hit, that her health was declining but she reassured me that she was getting better.

I clung to that. I couldn't accept anything else.

Then last week, her loving husband called to tell me Peggy was in hospice.

No.

No.

On Monday night, I couldn't sleep. I laid in bed and started talking to Peggy in my head and eventually fell asleep.

The next morning, Peggy's husband called to tell me she'd passed away during the night.

I'm looking at Peggy's wall now with the wall hangings she's given me in the past.

I've been very blessed with many amazing friends in Illinois. 

But Peggy was the first.

And yes, she'll always be in my heart and always a part of me.

DeCluttering

 A friend recently sent me an article about decluttering from Consumer Reports.

We actually decluttered a LOT when we moved from Illinois to Hawaii. We had to because shipping things from Illinois to Hawaii was considered an International move. I guess it's because it's over an ocean. That was in 2008. So it's been 15 years.

Since mom had her older (maybe antique) things and we had our newer things, there's a lot of stuff we don't use at all. And in those 15 years... well... we did get a few more things that seemed as though we needed them.

Some of the kitchen drawers have gotten so full that I either can't close it easily or fit anything else in it. That's been annoying but I wasn't motivated to get rid of anything. However, this article was just the push I needed.

This was originally the knife drawer. But things got really messy. So I decided to get rid of some of those knives and figured I'd just donate them to Goodwill.

However, Art stopped me and said mom uses the big one to cut the hard kabocha.

OK, back in the drawer.

OK...

So that went back in the drawer. Well, anyway, the drawer is neater now. I'm sorry I didn't do a Before and After photo which would have really shown the difference.

Once that was done, I took out several scoops and spatulas from the large utensil drawer. The drawer doesn't get stuck anymore.

I was also in the bathroom and noticed this top drawer between Art and my sink was SUPER cluttered so I found a container and a small box to organize it. AND I tossed out a whole bunch of old band-aids, etc.

So now I'm walking around the house looking at what else can go into the donation pile.

Hmmm... I just got a message that the nearby Buddhist Temple is having a Rummage Sale. I will have to start seriously looking for things to pass on to somebody else.

But then the other day, my brother (who used to work at the Honolulu Police Department crime lab) said, "Hmmm... if you donate those knives and someone uses them for a crime, you know your DNA will be on it right?" 

I think he was joking. Right? 😏

POSTSCRIPT:

I'm making progress. I'll be donating these things to the temple. OK, not the salad bowl though because my sister-in-law remembers mom serving her famous macaroni salad in it when my nephews were little.

Chinese Lantern Lily

When we were in Tokyo in June, we passed through a shopping area and I saw a display of flowers that caught my eye. I thought they were artificial flowers at first because they seemed so unusual.

Maybe it was the lighting or whatever, but I had to take several photos of it.

I did read on Wikipedia that: 

The corms of Sandersonia aurantiaca contain levels of the toxic alkaloid colchicine comparable to those in Gloriosa superba, another very poisonous plant belonging to the family Colchicaceae.

I think that sign for the flower says Sandersonia with a Japanese accent.

Have you ever seen this flower? I know I've never seen it in Hawaii or any of our travels.